
- 



^Z^UJu^^Ajzj J~ /&^/^fe 



A MEMOIR 



OP 



ADELAIDE LEAPER NEWTON 



BY t H JS 



REY. JOHN B ' TLLIE, 

MNI6TEB OF THE FBEE ) PL AND, LONDON; 

AUTHOR OF "MEMOH2S OF TIEWITSON," ETC. 



'He is the happy man whose life e'en now 
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come ; 
Content, indeed, to sojourn while he must 
Below the skies, but having there his home." — CowFEa 



NEW YORK: 

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 

No. 530 BROADWAY. 

1862. 






"We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 

Footprints on the sands. of Time: 
Footprints which perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again." 

LONGFELLOIT 



It SIM' TYPE 9 BY /" PRINTED BY 

THOMAS B. SMITH, E. O. JENKINS; 

%1 & 84 Beekman Street 



15 |9,o 



' 



:., 



I .NOV* ^ 8 

PREFATORY NOTE. 



The Authoress of the " Song of Solomon compared 
with other Parts of Scripture" scarcely needs to be 
introduced to the Christian public. But many will 
be interested to trace, in her personal life, a singu- 
larly vivid pattern of the heavenly walk there so 
> touchingly portrayed. It is in compliance with a 
widely expressed desire to have that mind and heart 
embalmed that the present Memoir appears. 
— - The poet Southey once wrote to James Mont- 
gomery: — "I am one who shrinks in like a snail, 
when I find no sympathy ; but, when I do, I open 
myself like a flower to the morning sun." Such was 
Adelaide Newton. Not many knew her thoroughly ; 
but there were two or three select hearts to which she 
"opened herself." To the letters thus called forth 
this Memorial mainly owes whatever of the life-like 
it may possess. 

A critic lately said of a Memoir now issuing from 



t 

iv PBEFATORY NOTE, 

the press : — " "We wanted a marble bust, with the 
features delicately chiselled and the features pre- 
served — and we are threatened with a colcssus in 
bronze." It would have been easy, in the present 
instance, out of the vast mass of letters and papers, 
to cast a colossus ; but the Author has aimed rather 
at the marble bust. 

The writer is sensible how imperfectly he may 
have caught the delicate lineaments of her inner life. 
But he is not without the hope that He w 1 o made 
her what she was, will graciously use this " living 
epistle" to solace some wearied pilgrim? And to 
quicken the steps of some loiterers by the v&y. 

London, December, 1855. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



After these pages had passed through the press, 
the Author received from the Rev. Canon Stowell, 
of Manchester, a communication respecting the sub- 
ject of this Memoir, in which he writes thus : 

11 Seldom or never has it been my happiness to see the 
mighty power of grace so marvellously manifested as in her. 
She seemed to dwell in the vestibule of heaven — to live on 
the steps of the throne of grace. The vigour of her under- 
standing, the acuteness of her judgment, the force of her 
reasoning, the originality of her ideas, and the beauty of her 
style, astonished me. Tou could not converse with her 
without being charmed with the freshness, the vividness, 
the activity, the refinement of her mind. The spring of 
all was love to her Saviour, intense desire to glorify His 
name. This strung up all her energies ; this animated all 
her pursuits. Grace changed the whole tone of her char- 
acter. From the flexible, tasteful, buoyant girl, she rose 
into the earnest, elevated, reflective woman; yet all was 
artless and easy, clothed with humility, and adorned with 
simplicity. 

iC The one grand instrument of the work was the "Word 
of God. She lived on and in the Bible. Ir savoured every 
sentiment and toned every thought of her soul. She caught 
1* 



VI P OSTSCRIPT. 

the faintest whisper, and analysed the minutest expressions, 
of 'the lively oracles.' The Scriptures were wrought into 
the very texture of her inner life : she fed upon them in her 
heart. Hence the newness, the uuction, the savouriness of 
her writings. Like the silk-worm, which spins her exquisite 
thread from her own vitals, fed by the mulberry leaves — so 
she, from the experience of her own spirit, nourished by the 
leaves of the Tree of Life, wrought out her lovely tissues of 
heavenly wisdom. Flesh and blood had not taught her, 
but the Spirit of her Father in heaven. 

" In all she wrote, and said, and did, to glorify Christ was 
her single aim. This desire was as a fire in her bones. Her 
zeal was ever burning. Xor was the light of her joy less re- 
markable. Whilst most humble, she was most assured. 
Doubt seemed never allowed to overshadow her soul, anx- 
iety to disquiet it. "When you entered her chamber, you felt 
that she was enveloped in an atmosphere of heavenliness 
and peace. When she mingled with the family-circle, she 
seemed like the denizen of a higher world come down on 
some errand of love. 

"Assuredly, grace has seldom shone brighter in any 
vessel of clay. And for the honour of the Saviour and the 
consolation of His Church, the memorial of what was done 
in her, for her, and by her, ought net to be lost. 

" Manchester, Dec 4, 1855." 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

FAQS 

The key-note — Ancient fable — The earthen pitcher— Bacon— Birth- 
place — Early years — Natural attractions — Henry Martyn — " A 
religions man 1 ' — The bede-roll — The attic — Conflict — " Two 
masters 1 — The "three hundred and sixty-five religions" 1 — Leila 
Ada — The "new expedient'" — The bosom friends — Cowper — 
The felon — The pardon — The turning-point — "Seeing Jesus' 1 — 
Brainerd — Eeligiousness and godliness — "Annihilation of Reli- 
gious self 11 — Bepose 15 



CHAPTER II. 

Henry Martyn — " A resignation of the heart" 1 — " Whose am I ?"— 
The alternative — The test — The Geranium — "A living sacrifice" 
— Self-surrender — The "better part' 1 — The harvest — Worldly 
society — The line — Tersteegen — Self-denial — The new affection 
— "Degrees of worldliness' 1 — Half-reconciled— Blackheath — 
"Winning cheerfulness — Ireland — A duty— "Kept from the evil 1 ' 
" Jesus in company 11 —" Conscience in secret 11 24 



CHAPTER III. 

Lord Bacon — "Another himself" 1 — Xew friendships — Instinct and 
grace — The "truant flower" — Heart never poor — Family-gather- 
ing— The Sunday-school— The district— " Win souls'"— "Old 
Betty 1 '— The prayer at the door — The sickle — The 
hope"'— Schiller 



Vlll CONTENiS, 



CHAPTER IV. 

PAGl 

The preparation— Labours— Health broken down— Yin et— Chas- 
tisements, sacrifices — Chain of sin — Cecil — "Do something"' — 
Tersteegen — "Bringing up,*' and " Bringing down 1 '' — The Invalid 
at the window — " Uncrossed lives" — Irish readers — A gleam of 
sunshine 44 



CHAPTER V. 

The Blnmlis Alp— Torquay — Increasing illness — " Image of a suf- 
fering Saviour" — Praising the Lord in the fires — A snare of Satan 
— Real experience — "God's gentle pressure" — Unworldly, not 
unhuman — An incident — Lonely Sabbath — Idolatrous attach- 
ments — Herbert — A visit— Patience under little trials — A train- 
ing-place for heaven — " A secret" 1 52 



CHAPTER VI. 

** Our business" 1 — "Absorption in the Bible 1 * — The two silences — 
"Walk with God — Letter-writing — Christ's sympathy— Thorn in 
the flesh — Canticles — New devotedness — A congratulation — 
"Little confessions" 1 — "Mounting to the sky" — A silent commu- 
nion — The cloud of witnesses — "Married to Christ" — Entering 
into Jesus — Fruit — Present service and future glory — God breath- 
ing through us — Return to Torquay 



CHAPTER VII. 

"Living martyr"— Bacon— Cecil— " New tent in the wilderness" — 
" Clinging in the dark Prayer — The consecrated chair — A con- 
version — "Only one lite' 5 — Second Coming — Humility — God 
satisfied — The seed-basket — Love — The blank — "Marry in the 
Lord 11 — Improved health — Christ's Life — The vail of flesh — The 
pruning-knife — Another conversion — Leaves Torquay — Sympa- 
thy with Christ's joy 81 



C ONTENTS . IX 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGB 

Bath — Keturn home — Chariots of angels — " Thought I was dying" 
— Another separation — ''Heart deep" — "Work on Canticles — 
"Drawing on God's forgiveness" — The one Book — The conflict — 
The muddy stream — God in little things — Forget-me-not — Self- 
examination — Watchfulness — " Bible enough'" — Eagged-school — 
The earthly house — " Balancings of the clouds" — Eeturn to Tor- 
quay 100 



CHAPTER IX. 

The "highest attainment" — Another conversion — "In the world 
again" — A pervert — A Personal Christ and a personal devil — 
Cross-bearing — Discipline, its aim — Closer intimacy with God — 
"Eccentric philanthrophy" — Home-affections — The earthen ves- 
sel — The earnest—" Cannot be agitated" — A snare — The look — 
Working — The "talents" — "Dashing on the rock" — Payson — 
Ridley— A longing— Not Christianity, but Christ— The "meet- 
ing-place" — "Wilderness-lessons — A communion--" This do" — 
A retrospect — Final leave of Torquay 117 



CHAPTER X. 

Diary — "Not streams, but wells" — Letter-writing— A test — Mar- 
riage — The "fatal calm" — " Eipen for glory" — "Senses exer- 
cised" — The primitive taste — Spirit breathing through us — 
Genial affections — Self-reproach — The Magnet — "Abetter com- 
munion" — "Treasures in heaven" — A bereavement — "An eter- 
nal present" — Meditation — Grace and sin — A gourd withered — 
" Expect" — Impotence and OmniDotence — " Playing with 
flowers" — Habakkuk — David — "Live upon God" — Self-sacrifice 
— " Money, money !" — " Ourselves" — The love-token — Christmas 
thoughts 143 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

PAOI 

"Work on Canticles— The press—" Slighting the Word"— Gilding 
the pathway — A birthday wish — "^Tearing the port" — "Viva- 
cious self-interest" — The thorns—" Dacis"— The furnace — " Only 
two men" — The Father's eye — Thankfulness — "Tides of love" — 
Christ for us — The two things — Her church — " My baseness" — 
Embittering the world — "The earthly hut' 1 — The Evil One — 
Keligious dissipation — " My leanness" 1 — Christ and bodily tired- 
ness — The three visitors — A Tuscan prison— Sealing and witness- 
ing — Unbelief and humility — " Our own clay" — Haifa Saviour — 
"That brink" — Christ leading the praises - Outward adorning — 
Clothed with immortality — Tinging of the dark cloud — Jesus a 
personal Friend—" The balm ' 163 



CHAPTER XII. 

The daily resurrection — Mental trials and bodily — Another conver- 
sion — The heliotrope — "Seeing Jesus" — "Looking on Him" — 
" Handling 11 Him — "Nearer to Thee' 1 — The blood — "Do all for 
Christ 11 — Infancy of the heart — Christ in His right place — " The 
Church and the Churches 11 — Manifold discipline — Her book blest 
— Hours at the Throne — Strength revived — 7%t?lesson — Hebrews 
— Guidance — " One indulged sin" — Sanctification — Bright side of 
the cloud— Diary — Lowering lessons — "Covered with Jesus"— 
Battle-field 1S5 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The family-affections — Christ and Antichrist — Her father's last ill- 
ness — "Cried myself to sleep' 1 — Diary — Fruit ripe — Insensibility 
— "Fainteth not" — "But one sting' 1 — " We shall meet again" — 
Polishing other side of the stone — Occupy to-day— Anticipations 
— Closing scene — " All joy' 1 — " G-o up' 1 — Eesurrection — Recosni- 
tion — " Jesus wept" — " Come forth 1 ' — Unclothed state — At home 
in the body — Absent from it — " Clothed upon 11 — Left behind — 

. Uppermos* feeling — Adoration — " Happy in his happiness 11 199 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

PAGE 

School of affliction — New lessons — Isolation and desolation — Christ's 
body — The " daylight" — Diary— Breathings — " Glory" — River's 
brink and rivers side — A retrospect — The waves and ihe haven — 
"A thorough pilgrim" — " Not satisfied"' — The "higher occupa- 
tion" — Satan's method of temptation — u Fighting in Canaan" — 
The burnt-offering — Visits — "Each moment's need" — "Xot un- 
derstood" — Suffering and service — " Strengthening to carry the 
cross" — The worm at the root — Restraining grace — Study of 
Hebrew — Sanctifying wealth — A "weight" — "Sensitive to sin" 
— "Better home" — Future recognition — "Shut up to Jesus" — 
The oak and the storm 210 



CHAPTER XV. 

Ritualism — "Outside things" — "Visiting the people" — High- 
Churchism — "My notions of the Church" — Only true value of life 
— Henry Martyn, at Calcutta and at Dinapore — Congenial home 
— The eternal day — Brainerd — God, not self — "Never wearies of 
me" — "No silent moments*' — "Turn your bed'' — Sick-room — 
The reward — Luther — Atonement — The " living sacrifice" — The 
fashioning of the "mystical body" — Infancy and manhood — Per- 
son of Christ — Answer to prayer, why delayed — ""Within three 
days" — The ravens — The " bruising" and the " darkness" — The 
"sacrifice" and the "burning lamp" — The misty atmosphere — 
The lambs and the sheep—" Dread not" I 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Portrait — Bible in hand — "Absorbed in God"— Strong Conflicts — 
Mental habitude — Diary — The orange -tree — Life a business — 
"Joy of the Lord" — The preparation — Krummacher — "The holy 
dove" — " Purging the floor" — The " two rests" — Unuttered 
groanings — Prophetic study — The "conflict in the land" — The 
" garment of praise" — The " waves" — " It is I " — V airing — Evans 
— Hewitson — Intercession — " Unripe fruit" — The valley — Health 
stationary — The Spirit and the flesh — Secret of usefulness —Ten- 
derness and hardness — Earnest labour - 247 



Xll C N T E N T S . 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PAGl 

" A real stratagem''— The child and the dog— Glimpses through 
the lattice — " A grasp of His hand" — Soft whispers — The shell 
and the kernel — " An uncertain sound*' — " Come up higher" — 
" Tender grapes"— Watch!— The narrow way — Infidelity — Sinai- 
tic inscriptions — The buds and the fruit — Memoirs — The un 
clouded sunshine — Bodily depression — The white hyacinth — 
"Solitariness" — A "beloved Persis" — Maturing experiences — 
Intimacy with Jesus — The " wheel full of iron spikes" — The new 
wine of the kingdom — Melchizedec — The Man of Sorrows — Ee- 
surrection — Ever-varying tides — " Traitor-like character" — The 
blind children — " Waiting upon God" — Bible"s adaptedness — A 
cure for " wretched spirits" — Ripened Christians 266 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Augustine — The Bible — A glimpse into her chamber — The bee — 
The exotic — "Sharpness" — "Perfect through sufferings" — "A 
little while" — "Brilliantly happy" — The Jew — Egypt — Sinaitic 
inscriptions — Hieroglyphics — Alphabet — Researches — '-Harbour 
insight" — God's immensity — Permission of evil — Prayer, " set 
speaking" and " athing" — Martin Luther — Thankful- 
ness — Watching for souls — New sorrows and new joys — Aged 
Christians — Subdue dness — Satanic agency— The two ends — Oil- 
painting — Consecrated to God — Strokes upon the stones — The 
"south wind" — "Beg yourselves rich"— Self-possessedness — 
Lisht of affliction's fire— "All known to Thee"- 2S1 



CHAPTER XIX. 

5The shell — Its native sea — Land of Beulah— Breaks in communion 
— Robert Bolton — "When shall lie dissolved?" — "Exalted" — 
"Going to be with Him" — Pilgrim experiences — "Momentary 
catches" — "A time-state"— The " perfect"— Eps and downs— 
The four wings — Self-sacrifice— Hie Same — The "house-devil"' 
exorcised — Soul-nakedness — Apathy — Foretastes — Emma Maur- 
ice—" Self-crushed" — Increasing weakness—" Singing for Jesus'' 
— Enoch — The pilgrim — Looking back — " Exalted above meas- 
ure" — Faith and Conception — Bishop Ridley — "Heaven of com- 
munion'— David's life— The Potter's field— The spiritual body— 
The Lord 's appearing « 



CONTENTS. Xlll 



CHAPTER XX. 

PAGH 

Spenser— The "dark cottage" '—"New light" — "Now come I to 
thee"— "Pity thyself"'— The vails— Ruffled spirit— External 
ease — Diary — Visits — 'Work on Hebrews — Energy of purpose — 
"I owe it so much'"— -What sin is" — "My face on the ground" — 
Sympathies — Job's three friends— Longings — " Downright stag- 
gered'* — The Great-hearts— -Heaven's own bliss" — David — The 
Psalms — "No other path"' — "The provocation" — "Continued 
with me"' — Cowper— Contemplation — The eagle-pinion — Caleb — 
" God's joy" — Anticipated evil — " The Nazarue" — New discipline 
— Christian love — " Godliness"' — Sin of unbelief — "Useless grief" 
— " Sonship-positiou" — God in sufferings — Renewed elasticity — 
A glimpse into the sick-chamber — " Maturing for removal" 818 



CHAPTER XXI. 

** Heaven begun" — Payson — Celestial city in view — " Most of me 
fled" — Diary — Labours — " Mastering death" — A message — God's 
pleasures — "Sinking into Christ" — Jesus prays — The bright 
cloud — The unchanging Priest — "Deep waters" — " Spoken for 
to God" — " Feeling the bottom*' — God unchanged — Mists — 
Brightened — "Verifying my experience by the Word" — Work on 
Hebrews — Irish Missions — Christ "showing Himself" — "Sim- 
ple faith" — Prostrated — "All bright yonder" — "The grand 
whole" — A farewell — " Foundation-realities" — " Eemembering 
Him in the night-watches" — Legh Eichmond — Silent fortnight 
— "Looking heaven" — "Eock-like peace" — Payson — "Praise 
waiteth" — "Higher up" — A parting gift — "Never mind" — Eev. 
A, Dallas — The silent tear — "I icill get up" — Heavenly peace — 
Dismissal — Polycarp — Living martyrdom — " Sweetest Canticle'' 
—The Epitaph 343 

2 



CHAPTER I. 

" I long so earnestly to be growing in grace hour- 
ly — ' filled with the Spirit' — burning with love tc 
Christ, and Christians, and sinners — to be a reflection 
of Him in the world, and working whilst it is day." 
So wrote, on one occasion, the beloved disciple whose 
brief but bright course we are now to sketch. That 
aspiration was the key-note of her life. 

It is fabled by an ancient poet, that, " when Her- 
cules went to unbind Prometheus (a figurative per- 
sonification of human nature), he sailed the length 
of the great ocean in an earthen pot, or pitcher." 
And Lord Bacon, applying the fable to the Christian 
life, describes the saint as sailing most marvellously in 
the frail bark of the flesh, through the waves of the 
world, to that home where he shall be "free indeed." 

It was emphatically a frail bark and a stormy ocean 
which carried Adelaide Newton to her haven. And 
others who are still on that ocean, " toiling in rowing," 
may be comforted mightily as they hear the articulate 
voice of Him who so often came to her, saying, " It 
is I; be not afraid." 

The town of Derby cannot boast of many holy 
memories. But He who noted Bethany as "the 



16 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

town of Mary and of her sister Martha," has noted 
the birthplace of Adelaide Leaper Newton. It 
was on 1st March, 1824, that an infant, who was to 
leave behind her so precious a fragrance, was ushered 
into this vale of tears. 
"Life," it has been said, 

" Beginneth as a little path edged with the violet and prim- 
rose, 
A little path of lawny grass, and soft to tiny feet." 

To Adelaide Newton, life's early years were eminently 
smooth and pleasant. Of a good family, and sur- 
rounded by every earthly luxury, she grew up into 
girlhood, her sunny morning betokening a cloudless 
day. " This sweet spot," we find her writing to a 
friend, on her return home after a short absence, 
" seems like an earthly paradise." And a singular 
aptness in acquiring each accomplishment to which 
she successively devoted herself, threatened, as she 
rose into womanhood, to entangle her still more 
firmly in the world's meshes. A surviving sister 
speaks of " her peculiarly sweet touch in playing, and 
voice in singing," which " made her music unusually 
attractive." Her delicate pencil, too, seemed to mark 
her out for no ordinary success in drawing. And 
graver attainments were added. "A natural talent 
for languages" found its development in the acquisi- 
tion of various of the modern tongues ; and, in later 
years, she added to them Greek, Hebrew, and even a 
little Arabic. She "particularly delighted also in 
mathematics." And when, added to all this, was the 



EARLY JOYS. 17 

idorninent of a " charming manner," whose graceful 
nodesty was " never for an instant spoiled by the 
praises which were continually heaped upon her in 
:he social circle," it will be seen that seldom has the 
world held out a more attractive allurement than to 
the subject of our Memoir. 

"Like yourself," she writes, long afterwards to a 
school-companion, describing that season of her early 
joys, " my heart naturally clung very much to the 
world. Music was my great snare. I took infinite 
pains to play well, and delighted secretly in the com- 
mendation I got whenever I played before any one. 
Fancy now its being nearly four years since I have 
touched either piano or organ. And my singing, 
which I had once even more reason to be satisfied 
with, is probably for ever silenced. You cannot think 
how I thank God from my heart that He would not 
let me gratify the secret pride wnich was lurking in 
it, and which was stealing my love from Him." 

Henry Marty n tells, that, in his student-days, 
when self and self-pleasing was as yet the centre of 
his soul, he contrived to pronounce himself " a reli - 
gious man." Adelaide Xewton, also, had, for many 
days, inscribed her name in the same bede-roll. 

A child of parents who loved the Lord, scarcely 
bad she known the time when the "things of the 
kingdom" were strangers to her ear. 

" Pleasant as it was," writes her governess, " to 

teach her in the school-room, it was still more so to 

be with her at the season for spiritual instruction. 

She always appeared to enjoy those opportunities • 

2* 



18 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

and on one occasion I remember she said, ' Tnauk 
you, I shall now go to sleep on the Rock of 
Ages.' " 

And, as years went on, the "religiousness" had 
grown more intense. " On one occasion," sav^ her 
sister, "in 1835, when Mr. Greville was here i >r a 
few days, much that he said, both in the famib and 
to herself, deeply impressed her. And I well remem- 
ber how, about that time, we were constantly reading 
Doddridge's l Rise and Progress,' Fletcher's 'Address,' 
and James' 'Anxious Inquirer.' " And in the follow- 
ing summer the " religiousness" assumed a still draper 
hue. The family had removed for a few mont'rs to 
a neighbouring village, to escape the small-pox which 
had seized virulently a member of the household. 
In an unfurnished attic of the house, Adelaide, and 
three others, used to spend — each unknown to the 
rest — many solitary hours in " devotional reading 
and in prayer." And the family governess writes : 
"From the beginning of 1837 to the end of 1839, 
I had a daily course of private Bible-reading and 
prayer with dear Adelaide at her own particular re- 
quest." 

But the " religiousness " did not give her rest, " I 
am the victim," we find her writing, " of the most 
distressing and pairful conflict, Sometimes I feel 
ready to give myself up almost to despair, while at 
other times I seem to enjoy religion. "When I look 
back upon the time when I think this conflict first 
began in me (which I believe is now six or seven 
years ago), I am tempted to believe that it is quite 



EARLY STRUGGLES. 19 

impossible that one who has trifled so long with such 
things, sinning Against such light and knowledge as 
I enjoy, shall ever be forgiven." And again : " I 
am so careless, and so unwilling to pray. Pray 
earnestly for me, and write faithfully to me. It will 
not be a small thin^ to deceive mvself on so all-im- 
portant a subject." 

And some years afterwards, referring to this period, 
she writes: "I can perfectly enter into all your 
feelings, because I have been in much the same state 
of mind myself. I was not happy in the world, and 
could not be, for there is nothing in it which can 
satisfy an immortal creature. I had no real enjoy- 
ment in anything, because I was trying to serve two 
masters. And this, I now see, cannot be : God 
will have the whole heart : His promise is, that we 
shall find Him when we search for Him with all our 
hearts." 

And again, to the same friend : " I have often 
thought of you since you once wrote me a note say- 
ing you could serve God only as a duty. If this is 
still your feeling, I can assure you from my own ex- 
perience, that it is only because your heart is not 
given up entirely to God. You are trying, as I too 
long did, to serve God and Mammon ; and therefore 
you find no true enjoyment either in the world or in 
religion. I know exactly how you feel, having had 
precisely the same conflict going on in my heart for 
a long time." 

"Out of about 365 religions in the world," said 
a highly-educated Jew one dav to his beloved child, 



20 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON". 

an accomplished and lovely girl of nineteen , as she 
was urging upon him the wonderful graciousness of 
that Divine Saviour whom she had found in the cruci- 
fied Nazarene, "I don't think your's the easiest; 
people have to work so hard, and be so distressingly 
earnest, and so awfully solemn ; it makes me ill to 
think of it." " Ah !" replied the youthful convert, 
" this religion is a very happy and a very easy one. 
I have an inward peace and joy which is unspeak- 
able. Jesus is precious ; He is Heaven ; He blesses 
me every moment. Oh ! his boundless love to me !" 

Adelaide Newton had not yet found Him who was 
Leila Ada's all. " It is the constant life," says she, 
"of watchfulness and self-denial required of the 
Christian which fills me with despair." Her con- 
science not yet sprinkled with " the blood," she was 
without a leverage to move her- to willing service. 
Her heart, not yet attached to the Lord Jesus, was 
not, and could not be, detached from a world " lying 
in the wicked one." 

A new expedient was now attempted. 

" I did so much wish to see you," she writes, on the 
27th April 1839. "You know that I have at times 
been very anxious about the state of my mind. 
Many indeed are the convictions God has most gra- 
ciously granted me ; but they have been rejected and 
slighted. All this winter, however, I have been very 
much depressed in spirit, and at times quite miser- 
able. When J was staying with us, she slept 

with me. We often talked indirectly on religious 
subjects; but one night we got nearer and nearer 



THE NEW EXPEDIENT. 21 

home, till it ended in my opening my whole heart 
to her. This was no sooner done than I felt a burden 
taken off my mind, which has been weighing me 
down foi months. She gave me most precious ad- 
vice. I had never spoken freely to any one before ; 
and you may imagine what a relief it was. O pray 
for me ! I trust God is bringing me by a way I know 
not." 

And again, to another : u There is something with- 
in which keeps me from enjoying perfect peace. If I 
could once be sure that I am justified, then all would 
be right. I wish, more and more, every day, to see 
some clergyman who would tell me what he thought 
of me. Still, I can hardly think that God would 
have brought me so far to put me to shame." 

But a brighter hope was now to dawn. " If," says 
Cowper, of the condemned felon, who, " in darkness 
and heart-chilling fears," hears the warder at his cell- 
door, about to lead him forth to death, 

"If then, just then, all thoughts of mercy lost, 
When hope, long lingering, at last yields the ghost, 
The sound of pardon pierce his startled ear, 
He drops at once his fetters and his fear ; 
And transport glows in all he looks and spea!b», 
And the first thankful tears bedew his cheeks." 

And the poet adds : 

Joy, far superior joy, which much outweighs 

The comfort of a few poor added days, 

Invades, possesses, and o'erwhelms the soul 

Of him whom hope has, with a touch, made whole, 



22 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OX. 

Tis heaven, all heaven, descending on the wings 
Of the glad legions of the King of kings. 
'Tis more — 'tis God diffused through every part; 
Tis God Himself triumphant in his heart." 

The bard of Olney himself knew little of this joy; 
but Adelaide Newton was now to realize it as her 
own. 

One morning, at Leylands, at family worship, a 
visitor* read the third chapter of Colossians. Select- 
ing the first verse — "If ye, then, be risen with 
Christ," he spoke emphatically of the " If," — urging 
the necessity of make sure of this starting point, 
setting forth Christ and His resurrection-life as the 
sinner's immediate privilege, and closing with an 
appeal on the duty of instant decision for Christ. 
The message went straight to Adelaide's heart. 
" The words," says her sister, " were used effec- 
tually by the Holy Spirit to decide her to be the 
Lord's." 

When Jesus was on earth, the needy " drew near 
to Him," and found in Him immediate life. Adelaide 
Newton " drew near " to the same Saviour, and found 
the same immediate life. Before, she had gone with 
her burden to the creature ; but the creature could 
not solace. Now she went direct to Jesus Himself, 
and she was " accepted in the Beloved." " This," we 
find her writing, " is the only way to life and salva- 
tion — ' Come, and see Jesus.' This is the way to 
settle all objections. We may have a thousand difii- 

* The Rev. Dr. H. M'^eile. 



THE CRISIS. 23 

culties in our minds ; but, by coming to Christ, to 
see Him for ourselves, they all vanish away" 

Brainerd, in his Diary, contrasting his religious- 
ness with his godliness, writes of the former thus : 
"The more I did in duty, the more hard I 
thought it would be for God to cast me off. But 
now I see that my duties laid not the least obli- 
gation upon God to bestow His grace upon me. I 
see evidently that the whole was nothing but self- 
worship."' 

And of the latter he writes : " It was the appre- 
hension of a divine glory. God brought me to a 
hearty disposition to exalt Him, and to set Him upon 
the throne. I was sweetly composed. I felt myself 
in a new world. I wondered that all the world did 
not see and comply w T ith this way of salvation, en- 
tirely by the righteousness of Christ" 

Adelaide Newton was carried through a Hke ex- 
perience. The " annihilation of her religious self 
she had found " a bitter work." That work, though 
in some sense a life-long discipline, was now so far 
done, that, for the first time, she could say, " Not I, 
but Christ." And, like Brainerd, she felt an indescri- 
bable repose. " It is impossible," she writes, " to de- 
scribe what a sight of Christ is. One man cannot 
tell another. Every one must see for himself. It is 
perfectly irresistible. And there is something trans- 
forming in the very act of beholding Jesus. It is the 
soul's highest joy." 



CHAPTER II. 

CXse day Henry Martyn wrote in his Diary : "My 
soul approves thoroughly the life of God ; and my 
one only desire is, to be entirely devoted to Him. I 
have resigned, in profession, the riches, the honours, 
and the comforts of this world ; and I think, also, it 
is a resignation of the heart." 

With Adelaide Newton, also, it was " a resignation 
of the heart." " ' Whose am I V " she writes, allud- 
ing to Paul's words that night in the ship : " Why 
is it that so few, so very few, can at once answer, ' I 
am thy servant, O Lord V There is no sin more 
hateful to Christ than lukewarnmess. And jet how 
many thousands are victims of it in the present day 1 
What numbers are spoken of as l well-inclined,' 01 
' well-disposed,' young persons, liking to be thought 
well of by the Lord's people, and yet shrinking from 
that ' coming out ' from the world and being ' sepa- 
rate,' which alone could enable them conscientiously 
to affirm, as in the sight of God, ' I am thine.' " 

" Every one living," she proceeds, " must be Satan's 
slave or God's child. What an alternative ! Surely 
those who continue in this uncertainty have never 
seriously asked themselves whose the?/ are, if they are 



DECISION. 25 

not Christ's ? or reflected that they can not be stand- 
ing still in this uncertainty, but that every thought, 
word, and action, of every moment of their lives, is 
confirming them in their sendee of one of these two 
masters, and is ever giving fresh and still stronger 
evidence whose they are !" 

And she adds : " How intensely important, there- 
fore, the question becomes, ' Whose am I V There 
can be no true peace till it is settled. i Being justi- 
fied by faith, we have peace with God ' (Eom. v. 1) ; 
but not till then. And this is the secret why there 
are so few — so very, very few — happy, rejoicing 
Christians. It is not that the religion of Christ is a 
gloomy thing, but it is that so few know the peace it 
gives under a sense of forgiven sin. How can they 
be happy, who are bearing about on their consciences 
the burden of a life of unpardoned guilt ?" 

From her own conscience that burden was now 
gone. Like the pilgrim's, it had fallen from her at 
the foot of the cross. " How did I know," she writes, 
some time afterwards, in reference to this period, 
" that my sins were all washed away ? Because I 
was trusting simply to the finished work of Christ, 
and was not waiting until I had done any thing to 
evidence it. What we do, as Christians, proves 
whose we are in the eyes of the world (Matt. vii. 
16 — 20) ; but the grand question with us is, whose 
we are in the sight of God; and that depends entirely 
on our acceptance of the finished work of Christ 
Union with Christ makes us Christians; and that 
should be the test whose we are.' 1 
3 



26 MEMOIR OP A L. S£WfJVr 

Relieved from her burden, and bearing in her 

hand 4i the roll," she now with a light heart ascended 
the hill Difficulty. " There is blessedness unutter- 
able," she writes, in true fixedness of heart upon 
God. It enables a soul to 4 sing and give praise' 
(Ps. ivii. 7), even amidst dangers and calamities and 
reproaches." 

In casting in her lot with Christ, she had not 

omitted to count the cost. " One day, Lady L 

S was asking a mutual friend about us," we find 

her writing some time previous ; ' ; and she heard that 
we were not decided enough to be happy. Her 
simple reply was, ' Oh, tell them from me not to be 
half-and-half.' You cannot think how those words 
haunted me ever afterwards, and how often they 
have helped me to be out-and-out a Christian in my 
conduct." 

The " soul that loveth," has been compared to the 

"Pale geranium, pent within the cottage-window." 
" Behold," says the poet, 

"How yearningly itstretcheth to the light its leaves! 
How straineth upward to the sun, coveting its sweet 

influences! 
How real a living sacrifice to the god of all its wor- 
ship!" 

Such was Adelaide Xewtcn. Fixing her heart on 
her beloved Lord, she was transformed into ' ; a livino- 
sacrifice." " We read," she writes, " of l many men 
of Benjamin and Judah,' who came to join them- 
selves to David. And how did they proclaim their 



THE CHRISTIAN IX THE WORLD. 27 

true-heartedness ? By their entire self-surrender: 
4 Thine we are, David ; and on thy side, thou son of 
Jesse!'" 

Surrounded by not a little to attract the carnal 
eye, she " chose the better part," and chose it once 
for all. " What I long for most," she writes, "is an 
habitual and realizing sense of the presence of God 
at all times, and the constant recollection that His eye 
is upon me, and that nothing, however trivial I may 
think it, can escape His observation. May it be our 
experience daily more and more, so that we may 
grow in conformity to the image of Christ and in 
meetness for our heavenly inheritance !" 

Like the " man in the picture," she had not only 
44 the world behind her back," but the " crown of 
glory hanging over her head." " Every fresh devel- 
opment," she writes, u of the fruits of the Spirit in 
our hearts is fresh treasure for 4 the Lord of the har- 
vest.' Oh ! did we but remember this, in what a 
different light would all the events of time appear to 
us ! In every friendship we form, in every visit we 
pay, in every letter we write, we are either sowing to 
the flesh — of the flesh to reap corruption, or sowing 
to the Spirit — of the Spirit to reap life everlasting! 
How this ought to quicken us to use our moments in 
sowing seed for our eternal harvest !" 

In an age like the present, when 44 the form of 
godliness " is so rife, and its " power " so very rare, 
it is not wonderful that a sensitive heart like hers 
should early have been called to solve various prob* 
lems in the dailv life. 



28 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWlON. 

One of these problems was "the course to be pur* 
sued in regard to worldly society." Writing to a 
friend who had solicited her judgment, she says : — 
" I scarcely think it possible to draw the line too 
strongly between light and darkness. We cannot 
be real Christians only in private. It is written, 
' By their fruits ye shall know them ;' and if we are 
really following God devotedly, it will be evident to 
all around us. Let me, therefore, entreat you at 
once to resolve to make up your mind to devote 
yourself entirely, soul and body, to Him. I know 
you never can be really happy till you do." 

Tersteegen speaks of " love exercising self-denial 
without tasting its bitterness, and almost without ever 
thinking of it." One of Adelaide's sisters, who had 
been absent from home, writes : " I shall never for- 
get the impression she made on me by the intense 
feeling she put into Gal. vi. 14, which was the first 
text she quoted as soon as we were alone together ; 
and from that time I saw that the world was cruci- 
fied to her in a way I had never seen it before." 
And she herself writes : " The nearer we live to 
Jesus, and the closer our walk is with Him, the less 
inclination we have for pursuits and pleasures in 
which He is not the object." 

Many Christians seem only half-reconciled, and 
therefore only half-separated unto God. Dear Ade- 
laide felt at home in her Father's house ; and that 
made her feel a " stranger " in a world which knows 
not the Father. " Oh ! for a heart," some one has 
said. 



WINNING CHEERFULNESS. 29 

;i Magnanimous to know 



!" 



Thy worth, poor world, and let thee go! 

Such a heart Adelaide had gotten at Golgotha, and 
it cost her scarcely a pang to Met go" whatever had 
been most dear. "I can not help thinking," she 
writes to a schoolfellow, a that, if you are much 
occupied with thoughts of heaven, of holiness, of the 
meek and lowly Jesus, and how He lived and walked 
on earth, you will feel a secret shrinking from wordly 
society, which will make balls, Arc, d&o, very painful 
to you. God has left no positive commands upon 
things of this sort ; for He knows that where the 
heart is given to Him, the life will assuredly be given 
too. And the motive of Gospel-obedience is, not so 
much duty, as love. The child that loves its parents 
devotedly, or its friends, does what will please them 
at any cost.'' 

It was not in words only that she thus commended 
Christ. "Her love to Jesus," says one in whose 
house she resided at Blackheath during her closing 
years of school. u was her animating principle, and 
the very joy of her heart. To lead her young com- 
panions to Him was her grand aim. Her winning 
cheerfulness made the young see how happy Jesus 
could make them. Everv girl loved her, some most 
devotedly." 

In the autumn of 1842 she visited Ireland. M TVe 
have indeed," she says, writing to one of that youth- 
ful band, M met with the truest Irish and Christian 
hospitality. "We dined one day with Mr. Daly, at 
Powerscourt. Almost all the Irish clerp;v, I find 
3* 



30 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

believe in the Personal Reign ; and it seems to have 
a very practical influence on their whole life and con- 
versation. We met there Mr. R . I really think 

I have seldom seen a more heavenly-minded man. 
He does (just what I always long to feel myself) in 
a most habitual manner seem to feel, that Jesus is 
always present. Oh ! to realize this continually is 
certainly to have some foretaste of heaven." 

Wherever she went, she left behind her a savour 
of Christ. " I never can forget," writes one who met 
her during that Irish tour, " dearest Adelaide's deeply 
interesting visit to Glanmore. Though it is thirteen 
years since, I can well remember how much we were 
both struck by her deep spirituality, the very en- 
larged range of her intellectual powers, the chastened 
tone of her mind, and the exquisite modesty and 
simplicity of her manners and character. We were 
not less delighted with the warmth of 'her zeal for 
the enlightenment of the poor Irish people." 

Scarcely a week passed that some school-companion 
or other friend was not soliciting her counsel and 
sympathy in the struggles of the Christian life. 
Writing to one, she says : " I think 1 Cor. vii. 20-24 
plainly shows us, that in whatever position or calling 
of life we are placed, there it is our duty to abide. 
A child, for instance, must be in subjection to her 
parents ; and if they would have her do what she 
dislikes or disapproves, it is generally, I should think, 
her plain duty to take up the cross and obey them, 
for God well knows her motive, and by no means 



SELF-DENIAL. 

judges her of willing conformity to the world i * 
such acts." 

And again : — " If you feel obliged to join yo&* 
family or friends in scenes which give you no plea- 
sure, and if you let them see that you join them from 
a sense of duty, and not from inclination, I think you 
will reap the gain of self-denial. But, after all, don't 
you think that our g :and concern is, to aim at close 
walking with God, ' saving Him to order our steps 
for us, and trusting Him so to order our way as best 
to enable us to walk closely with Him ? Remember 
that Jesus is each day saying to his Father for you, 
'I pray, not that she should be taken out of the 
world, but that she should be kept from the evil.' 
May I send you these words to use as your constant 
plea at the throne of grace whenever you are in diffi- 
culty how to act i n 

And to another friend: "In one sense, all con- 
formity to the world is forbidden. We could not 
have stronger language than St. Paul's : c Come out, 
and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing.' 
But then he has balanced that extreme bv telling us, 
on the other hand, that, if we kept no company with 
ungodly people, we ; must needs go out of the world.' 
And so far from this being intended, we are expressly 
commanded to be " blameless and harmless, the sons 
of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and 
perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in 
the world.' Again, we find Jesus, when on earth, 
accepting an invitation to a wedding-feast (John ii.) ; 
and He dined with a Pharisee (Luke vii.), who most 



32 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

certainly was a man of the world. And don't you 
think He is as much our example in these things as 
m visiting the poor, and in relieving the sick and 
needy !" 

And yet again : " I think the love of the world 
may show itself very differently in different persons, 
and that no one can altogether judge for another, 
whether they are indulging it in what they do, or not. 
But I believe conscience tells each child of God in 
secret. I dare not decidedly juc'ge for you, even in 
my own mind, how far you may rightly go into the 
world ; but I feel sure that if you honestly seek direc- 
tion from God, you will certainly get it. My desire 
for you is, that you may walk as Jesus walked. I 
don't think we can aim too high. Let your standard 
be, to be like Him." 

64 1 hope," she adds, " you will not think me severe 
upon you in anything I have said ; for you cannot 
think how I feel for you. My natural heart was 
so fond of the same wordliness, though in a different 
way. I struggled for months — or, I may say, years 
— between God and the world ; but never did I en- 
joy peace or happiness the whole time. No one 
knew what I endured. May you be spared the bitter 
conflict, and choose the better part at once and un- 
reservedly !" 

" Dead to the world, we dream no more 
Of earthly pleasures now ; 
Our deep, divine, unfailing spring 
Of grace and glory — Thou!" 



CHAPTER III. 

Lord Bacon, in one of his essays, quotes a pro- 
verb of the ancients — " A friend is another himself." 
" No receipt," he adds, " openeth the heart but a true 
friend to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, 
hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon 
the heart to oppress it." 

Dear Adelaide had left behind her not a few prized 
companionships ; but others were substituted. " Kin- 
dred," some one has said, " is the riches of the heart." 
That kindred she now possessed. " Oh ! what a life," 
she writes, " the life of a Christian is ! I feel so wrapt 
up in thought this morning, that I really cannot 
write. How delightful is the feeling that the same 
High Priest above understands your feelings and 
mine ! It gives a feeling of union which nothing 
else can. 'One in Christ !' — if we are thus made 
members of one body, we shall never be really sepa- 
rated." 

And to another : " I cannot tell you how thank 
fully I look back upon the privilege of getting to 
know you as much as I did at Sandgate. I really 
believe my chief pleasure in this world consists in 
having and being with Christian friends ; and none 
but Christians know how real and lasting such friend- 
ship :S." 



, i* 



34 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTOS, 

The instinct which loves because of natural attrac- 
tions, and the grace which loves in spite of natural 
defects, and simply because of what is Christ-like, are 
very different affections. 

'There is a fragrant blossom, that maketh glad the garden 

of the hpart; 
Its root lieth deep; it is delicate, yet lasting, as the lilac 

crocus of autum: 
Loneliness and thought are the dews that water it morn 

and even. 
I saw it budding in beauty; I felt the magic of its 

smile ; 
The violet rejoiced beneath it, the rose stooped down and 

kissed it ; 
And I thought some cherub had planted there a truant 

flower from Eden, 
As a bird bringeth foreign seeds, that they may flourish 

in a kindly soil." 

That " truant flower" is Christian fellowship — the 
"communion of the saints." And not often has it 
found a more "kindly soil" than in the heart of 
Adelaide Newton. "I am thinking so much," she 

writes, " of you and dearest to-night, I can 

fancy you both looking at that splendid star which 
I too see again to-nip-ht for the first time for ao-es. 
IIow long it may be before we all three look at it to- 
gether again ! Perhaps never ! Be it so ; may we 
then only meet to behold together, not a star, but the 
glorious, unclouded Sun of Righteousness ! We 
could not wish for anything so enrapturing in this 
irorid." And again : " I constancy think of you. 



THE FAMILY-GATHERING. 35 

How wonderfully we are all separated just now! 
How sweet the thought — 

" ' Our bodies may far off remove, 
We still are one in heart ! ' " 

The saint is not an anchorite, and he never will be. 
The world has not a friendship which shall survive 
earth's brief hour; but the saint is linked to his 
heavenly kindred by an affection which cannot die. 
His heart can never grow poor. " What a strange 
and mysterious thing," she says, "our pilgrim-life 
here is ! designed just for a special purpose, and often 
rendered so sweet by fellow-pilgrims who travel with 
us a part of the way ! but, different work and differ- 
ent paths being assigned to each, we are emphatically 
taught that our family-gathering cannot be fully 
realized till those numberless paths and different 
tracks shall meet in one common centre — the Fa- 
ther's house above. Oh ! that our love may indeed 
grow exceedingly both towards God and towards one 
another !" 

And, Writing to one of her sisters, she says : 

" How I wish, my dearest N , I thanked God as 

I ought for all He makes you to me ! I love so 
deeply, that really, when my love is peculiarly called 
forth, I long to live both to enjoy others' love to me 
and to love them in return. How intensely difficult 
to believe that love is to be so increased and per- 
fected in heaven!" And she adds: "As love is 
that which flows from God, I don't think it is pos- 
sible to prize it too highly from others, or to love too 



3f> ME MO IK OF A. L. NEWTON. 

raucli ourselves. It is only the sin that defiles our 
love, which roars it. It is trying to "be so near, and 
not to meet. But our meeting-place is in Christ and 
in His Word : we need separation to teach us this 
effectually, I believe." 

If she was Christ-like in her love to the saints, she 
was not less Christ-like in her compassion for perish- 
ing sinners. " la 1843," says one who knew her well, 
"she became a teacher in the Sunday-school — an 
employment in which she always took the deepest 
interest. The impression produced on the children's 
minds was not easily forgotten, some of them even 
proving their grateful affection by visiting her in her 
last illness.*' 

And another field of labour was a District in the 
parish of All-Saints'. Her visits were angularly 
blessed. The writer, a few months ago, met an ; 
women who owed to these visits her conversion. As 
she spoke of " dear Miss Newton," with tears in her 
eyes, a gleam of heavenly joy lighted up her wrin- 
kled features. " Oh ! I was so dark," she said, " when 
that dear lady came to see me ; but she told me of 
Jesus and His love, and it drew my dead heart to 
Him. Oh ! had she not come to me, I would just 
have lived on in sin," 

Her aim in all her visits was, not to " do a duty," 
but to " win souls." One of her sisters writes : 
"Early in the spring of 1844, Adelaide asked me one 
dav to share part of her district, and lend books and 
tracts at one end of the street. Noticing how long 
she had waited at the different Hoors before going 



DIARY. 37 

in, I asked her, as we were walking home, Do you 
always wait when you knock at a door till they open 
it P \ Xo,' was her reply, * but I always like to wait 
a moment, before I knock, to ask for the Iloly 
Spirit to be with my mouth and teach me what to sav 
in each house.' I have often thought of it since," her 
sister adds. ;i and have attributed to it her wonderful 
success among the poor whom she visited." 

And what passed within, we may gather from a 
few sentences occurring in a "private"' Diary, marked 
'• Visits to the Poor— 1843-6." 

"1843. July 14.— Saw R. F. : she appeared at 
the point of death. I never can forget the over- 
whelming feeling of being asked to speak to a soul 
on the brink of eternity : perhaps the last words she 
heard might be mine. I urged her to believe in 
Christ, who was able and willing to save her. I then 
prayed with her very shortly, and as simply as I 
could. I did not improve that opportunity as I nrgut. 
May God forgive me tor it I" 

"July 19. — Saw M. S., who gets worse in body, 
but I hope grows in grace. She told me that Mrs. 
"W. began to pray the clay before she died, but, find- 
ing she could not, she said she found swearing-easier ; 
and, returning to her former ways, she died in that 
awful condition. Oh ! that it might be a saving 
warning to some 1" 

" 1844. April 3.— Saw Mrs. L.. and read her part 

of 2 Or. v., and 1 Cor. xv. She could scarcely 

speak, but charged me to remember M. She said, 

1 If Jesus died for sinners, I'm sure he died for me ;' 

4 



38 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

and se reral times she repeated that she was i soon 
going home,' and could now resign everything to 
God." 

'-April 9. — Heard, from old Betty Fox, of the 
dying Infidel, Samuel Goode. In speaking of his 
determination not to have anything to do with a 
Saviour, she added, 'But / hope to trouble Him, for 
I hope to be with Him for ever." 

"May 1. — Saw Mrs. IT., and read her John iii. ; 
but I fear she depends on supposed innocency of 
life for acceptance with God, May God open her 
eyes to see her danger ! Oh ! that she may yet be 
brought into the fold of Christ, and be made His for 
ever !" . 

"1845. April 9.— Went to see E. E. ; but her 
spirit had taken its flight that morning. She knew 
she was dying, and on the Tuesday desired her 
mother to give ' her best love to Miss N"., for she 
should never see me again ;' and in the evening she 
asked her to take her a candle, and hold it by her 
while she read my hymn on ' The Fulness of Jesus.' 
She also spoke very seriously to her sister S., though 
the room was full. In the afternoon, while her 
mother was sitting alone with her, she said, ' Oh ! 
mother, can't you hear it ? It is so beautiful !' After 
listening for some minutes, she said, ^Yith her arms 
stretched out, £ I'm sure Jesus sent those blessed 
angels to comfort me.' She also said, when asked if 
she felt afraid to die, ' No, I'm not afraid ; the sting 
of death is quite taken away.' She was sensible to 
the last, and died peacefully." 



DIARY. 39 

" 1846. January 23. — Spoke to B. of neglecting 
salvation till we are sick and dying ; he was quite 
affected to tears, and wept some time. He seemed 
quite cheered when I spoke to him of the precious 
blood of Jesus." 

"February 23.— Spoke faithfully to Mrs. D. about 
her husband, and urged her, instead of trying to 
talk to him, to talk to God about him." 

"March 10. — Saw M. W, who had been taken ill 
on Wednesday. She said she had often wondered 
if her religion would support her in illness and death ; 
and it did. The world had never been much to her. 
She was always afraid of having too much, lest it 
should draw off her affections from God ; but now it 
seemed utterly nothing. She said she felt as if stand- 
ing on the outside of it. She had perhaps led as 
upright a life outwardly as was possible, exercising 
always a conscience void of offence ; but if any one 
should suggest that as a ground of acceptance, she 
spurnei the thought. She would consider every- 
thing in that light as ' lighter than a feather to waft 
her across the ocean.' " 

It was thus that dear Adelaide went about, like 
the Master, from day to day, " the common people 
hearing her oladlv." " I would never " we find her 
writing, in her diary, at the beginning of 1846, "entei 
a house without havino* first asked His blessing — 
never go to the district without prayer, and prayer 
especially for a blessing on the books lent." And 
this other entry : " The time is short ; work while it 
is day ; the Lord is at hand : occupy till I come*" 



40 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Her sickle preserved its fine edge ; and that made 
her so successful a reaper in His fields. 

And the sickles of other reapers she sought to 
sharpen. " ' Who hath believed our report V " she 
writes, in a pointed appeal, widely circulated in 
various parts of England, " is the sad inquiry of the 
minister, the teacher, and eveiy one who labours to 
win souls to Christ. Let us, therefore, put the pro- 
mise of our God to the proof, and see if He will not 
open the windows of heaven, and pour us out a bless- 
ing that there shall not be room enough to receive 
it. True, we need self-denial and resolute effort, to 
get even time for prayer ; and we must endure some 
conflict with Satan and self, ere we are enabled to 
continue in prayer. But if one hour each clay could 
be devoted by each praying soul in this parish to 
intercessory prayer on its behalf, what immense re- 
sults might be expected ! Surely we might be more 
thoroughly in earnest. Surely we might plead more 
with God, when infatuated men are deaf. Does not 
the Lord wait to be gracious, until He hears our cry 
(Isa. xxx. 19) ? c Ye people, pour out your heart be- 
fore Him.' " 

In her visitations, not less than in her own hidden 
life, the " blessed hope" grew daily more precious. 
" I have always found it," she writes in her diary, 
" produce a deeper impression upon the poor than 
any other subject." And elsewhere she says: "K 
opens the Scriptures to us in an entirely new light. 
I find, too, that all who receive this view are agreed 
that it makes them feel less concern and love for the 



THE BLESSED HOPE. 41 

world than anything we can imagine. It gives one 
this feeling, 4 If Christ is coming so soon, what mat- 
ters it what men think of us, if only we are safe in 
Christ I and what is there in the world worth caring 
for, since we shall so soon have done with it?' I 
know that we may say the same thing with respect 
to the shortness and uncertainty of life ; but we do 
not realize it in the same way." 

The " hope " wonderfully quickened her own steps 
heavenward. " It should ever be the Christian pil- 
grim's answer," she writes, " to every allurement to 
loiter or make a home down here, ' I cannot tarry ; I 
am journeying.' (Xum. x. 29.) And whither? 
Even to that land of promise, ' of which the Lord 
hath said, I will give it you.' He is ' going home.' 
It is already his by promise and by gift, and he is 
going to take possession of it ! It is not merely a 
resolution, it is a matter of fact that even now he is on 
his way. It could be no question with Israel of old ; 
for they were neither in Egypt, living in the land of 
Goshen, nor in Canaan ; but between the two — 
* journeying.' And they felt it — knew it — to be so. 

u 'TVe are on the way to God :' 
" 'And nightly do we pitch our tents 
A day's march nearer home.' 

We make progress in a journey : we expect none of 
the rest, or ease, or comforts of home, but press on- 
wards. And the promise of God leads us on We 
can trust to it. 

4* 



42 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

" ' Though the shore we hope to land on 
Only by report is known, 
Yet we freely all abandon, 
Led by that report alone, 
s And to Jesus 

Through the trackless deep move on.' " 

Schiller, in one of his tragedies, lias a personage 
who, in her enthusiasm of attachment exclaims, " He 
sails on troubled seas — Amelia's love sails with him ; 
he wanders in pathless deserts — Amelia's love makes 
the burning sand grow green beneath him, and the 
stunted shrubs to blossom ; the south wind scorches 
his bare head, his feet are pinched by the northern 
snow, stormy hail beats round his temples — Amelia's 
love rocks him to sleep in the storm. Seas, and 
hills, and horizons are between us ; but souls escape 
from their clay-prisons, and meet in the paradise of 
love." That is but a fond creation of the fancy, 
without a counterpart in life's realities. But the 
Christian pilgrim finds, in the hope of his Lord's 
" appearing," a gladness which is here but faintly 
shadowed. " Jesus endured the cross," writes our 
pilgrim, " for the joy that was set before Him ; and 
that we may endure it, He would have the ' fulness 
of joy in His presence,' and the crowns which He 
promises to ' those who overcome,' to be ever before 
us." This annihilates intervening " seas, and hills, 
and horizons." " Make haste my Beloved !" the soul 
cries in its struggle, lifting heavenward its faith and 
hope, " and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon 
the mountains of Bether." 



THE HOPE OF GLORY. 43 

Her thoughts at times took the form of verse. 
The lines which follow, though very simple, have a 
sweet pensiveness about them, betokening the heart 
of the stranger whose eye is upon the Canaan-rest. 
They are founded on Col. i. 27, and are dated " May 
10, 1846:" 

u i THE HOPE OF GLORY.' 

'■ So bright is the hope of the glory before me, 
I'm often impatient, in haste to be gone : 
I long, blessed Jesus, with saints to adore Thee, 
Those glorified spirits surrounding Thy throne. 

"So bright is the hope, that I would not live alway 
For pleasures this poor fading earth can bestow ; 
They never can satisfy, never can cheer me, 
For each oqe is tainted with sorrow and woe. 

s< Of this bo^y of sin and of death I 'm so weary, 
I cling to * he bright ' hope of glory' in store 
For the souk who have found all on earth to be weary 
And long to attain to the heavenly shore. 

"Lord, hasten the time of Thy blessed returning, 
To give us the peace and the rest that remain 
For Thy servants who stand with their lamps ready 
burning, 
To enter Thy glory, and with Tliee to reign ! 

"This — this is the Hope that is now set before us ; 
Oh I when shall we enter that glorious rest ? 
Welcome, pain! welcome, death! if it brings us to 
Jesus, 
And banishes hojpe in our pleasures possessed." 



CHAPTER IV. 

He who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, 
had been solacing His servant with this " strong 
consolation," before laying upon her His chastening 
rod. 

Her unceasing labours in the " district" began at 
leDgth seriously to undermine her never very robust 
frame. 

In April, 1844, we find her "going round a new 
district, containing at least one hundred houses," 
and " fairly tired out with each day's work." " 1 
have been this evening," she writes, in June of the 
same year, " to see another poor woman, very much 

like Mrs. , but more anxious. I have had two 

deeply interesting talks with her. Only think, what 
a privilege to be allowed to speak to poor sinners of 
a Saviour's love ! May our unworthy efforts be 
blessed!" 

And in March, 1845, she writes: "If you knew 
how fully every moment has been occupied lately, 
you would not wonder at my long silence. Suffice it 
to say, that last week I was out at district- work four 
days out of the six, from breakfast in the morning 
till four or five in the afternoon." 



HEALTH BROKEN DOWN. 45 

Often protracting her visitations until she was 
obliged to hasten home too late for dinner, she at 
last sat down one day overheated, and caught a chill. 
It was in June, 1846. 

It speedily became apparent that only a season of 
entire rest could afford any hope of real amendment. 
Writing from Malvern, to which she had gone " for 
change of air," she says, of date June 30 : ft You ask 
about my health. I am not well, but not ill. A 
troublesome cough has got me at last into the doc- 
tor's hands. He has ordered me to the sea-side, 
where I may get my constitution strengthened and 
have no temptation to work as I was doing at home. 
He has positively forbidden me to go into crowded 
rooms, Sunday-schools, (fee, or to sit in the open air. 
I have had ajDptiances to my chest ; and I hope, in 
time, to be either restored to health again, or to go 
where pain and sin are known no more — to that per- 
fect 'rest whicli remaineth.' My times are in His 
hands." 

Vinet has remarked, that " those who hope and 
trust in Jesus Christ present us with a strange spec- 
tacle — that of weak, frail, mortal men, for whom suf- 
fering and death are no longer a necessity endured 
involuntarily, but in some sort an act of the will, be- 
cause, by consenting to those chastisements, they 
transform them into sacrifices." It was so, emphati- 
cally, with Adelaide Newton. Not suffering "in 
spite of herself," but consenting cheerfully before- 
hand to the Master's will, she was to find in her com- 
ing sufferings, only "a bitter dew," which should 



46 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON 

develope and mature in her soul the germ of faith 
and of hope. 

11 Then shall these powers, which work for grief, 
Enter Thy pay, 
And, day by day, 
Labour Thy praise and my relief: 
With care and courage building me, 
Till I reach heav'n — and. much more, Thee ! ■ 

"What an unspeakable mercy it is," she vmlu t. 
a fellow-sufferer, " that God should give us lhes<* 
trials, and should care so much for us as to watch 
over them, and over us in them — that, through them, 
we may be brought nigh unto Him ! You ar^, I am 
certain, being ' led by the right way ;' and if it is a 
darker way, will not in all probability the result be 
brighter ?" 

And to another : M You know that each drop in 
your bitter cup is measured out to you by the unerr- 
ing hand of your heavenly Physician, who never 
makes mistakes, or ceases to watch His patients for 
one moment. Sometimes I rejoice to think how 
very soon I may die ; for I am sadly tied and bound 
by the chain of sin, and long to be delivered from 
this body of corruption : but I oftener think there is 
too much to be done in me before I am ' made meet' 
for glory, to allow me to die yet. How calming it is 
to remember the words of that hymn — 

" ' Till He bids, I cannot die ; 
"When the time He wills is come, 
Nought can keep me from my L311 *.' 



BUFFERINGS A X D SACRIFICES. 47 

And then to think of our meeting in glory, where 
there is fulness of bliss for evermore ! Oh ! surely 
this is a prospect which may well cheer us in our 
wearisome pilgrimage through the wilderness of life 
temporal. Life eternal we cannot understand at 
present ; but what we know not now, we shall know 
hereafter. I will try and pray for you in your 
present trouble. Let us not double the anxieties of 
to-day, by adding those of to-morrow : - Sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof.' D 

Cecil observes, that " such is the state of the world, 
and so much depends on action, that everything seems 
to say loudly to every man, l Do something — do it — do 
it P " Dear Adelaide had hitherto been an earnest doer : 
now she was to be a patient endurer. But. though no 
longer able to " speak" much about " the King," her 
" tongue" was transformed into " the pen of a ready 
writer ;" and greatly was the Lord to bless her words 

"Is it not wonderful," we find her writing, for 
example, to one who had not jet decided for Christ, 
"that you can love such a world so well 1 It is very 
hard to give up all and follow Christ ; indeed, with 
men it is impossible. But, blessed be God, when He 
makes us willing, He gives us the needful strength 
for every trial. What a wonderful reality there is in 
these things — so different from the head-knowledge 
which so many possess, who never will be partakers 
of heaven or of Christ ! It is hard, very hard, to be- 
come a true Christian ; but think, only for one 
moment, what is the only alternative ! Do not you 
shudder at the bare idea of dying unprepared ? Oh ! 



18 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

my dear F , can you go on unconcerned, at the 

brink of everlasting death ? If I may speak from 
my own experience, I would urge you not to leave 
the spot where you now are, nor to let the present 
moment pass by, without making up your mind at 
once to give up the world and devote yourself to Him. 
Forgive me, and don't be offended ; it is all because 
I love you so much." 

One day, a friend remarked to Gerhard Tersteegen, 
" God has much trouble in bringing up his children." 
" Yes," said Tersteegen, " and in bringing them 
down." The detaching and the attaching usually go 
hand in hand. " I think," we find Adelaide writing 
at this period, " God has been teaching us both the 
same lesson, though by different means — namely, 
that we must be weaned from a love of earthly ob- 
jects and find happiness in Him alone. I have by 
no means learned the lesson yet myself. No sooner 
is one idol removed than I find myself setting up an- 
other immediately. God finds in me, I am sure, a 
most rebellious, wayward child ; but He deals most 
wisely, most graciously with me. Pray that we both 
may find our faith growing exceedingly, and our love 
to each other abounding, whilst the love of so many 
waxes cold." 

Wandering about in search of health, she writes 
to one of her sisters thus : " I have been getting my 
Irish-reader collection made up, and, through God's 
help, sent 16Z. yesterday. One of my trials now is 
such a feeling of indolence and inability to arouse 
myself — the re-action, I suppose, of over-exertion in 



THE IRISH-READER COLLECTION. 49 

tiroes past. How you would laugh, could you see me 
at this moment ! sitting all alone in my bed-room, at 
the open window, with bonnet, shawl, and everything 
on ! I quite enjoy the air and the sun in this way ; 
and I must submit to not seeing my friends, remem- 
bering the blessedness of beino; left alone with Jesus. 
You taught me that !" 

And she adds : " I can't make out what means 

to do ; but it is the very best thing for us to have the 
world embittered to us in all ways. Should we ever 
have been what we are, if we had had the uncrossed 
lives so many young people lead ? And I believe, the 
more we know of conformity to the ' Man of sorrows,' 
as He was ' acquainted with grief,' the more we know 
of Himself, who is all our happiness, our joy, our 

peace. May He be glorified in you, dearest N , 

where you now are, and ask the same for your fondly 
attached sister, Adelaide." 

" The " Irish-reader collection" was an object very 
near to her heart. a I am sure," she writes to the 
Secretary, on the occasion above noted, " when I look 
upon my first originating this little plan, I cannot 
but wonder at the marvellous success which God has 
been pleased to grant — not so much in my own case, 
as in raising up, through us, three other instruments 
in the same service." Four missionaries were now in 
that field, all of them owing the means of cultivating 
it entirely to her exertions. And the money was the 
least element contributed. By maintaining a constant 
correspondence with the agents, and communicating 
the leading features of their labours to a large circk 



50 MEMOIR OF A. £. NEWTON. 

of friends, she kept alive in many hearts a glow of 
devotion on behalf of the work, which bore its fruits 
in the singular blessing with which their words were 
attended. 

In July (1846) she returned home "much worse." 
" The air of Malvern," she wiites, " was too keen and 
bracing for me. And now I am ordered, as soon as 
possible, to go to the sea, in some warm, sheltered 
place. I get quite impatient at times to have don8 
with sin, and with this body of sin which I carry 
about with me ; but I must learn to wait the Lord's 
time. It is difficult to learn to leave everything in 
the hands of God ; but it is a lesson we must learn, 
and we must be thankful for any means by which we 
are taught it." 

Later in the season we find her at Sand gate. Re- 
joicing over one who had at length consecrated her- 
self to God, she writes, on Sept. 29 : " God has dealt 
wonderfully with you, in enabling you to separate 
yourself from others who serve Him by profession 
only. I cannot help rejoicing with you. It seems 
as if He were dealing with you as with a choice plant, 
whom He would shelter from the withering: blasts 
which would have assailed you at home. I am sure 
of one thing, that it is all love, and that it is just be- 
cause He loves us that He thinks it worth while to 
try and to prune us. But I must ask you to pray 
that the end of His present dealings with me may be 
fully answered, and that He may still make use of 
me in His service, though in a different way from 
that I have been used to." 



A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE. 51 

From Sandgate she went to London. There a 
gleam of sunshine seemed to break upon her. " Mr. 
Evans' words to me yesterday," she writes, on Nov. 2, 
" were — ' I think I see in you beginnings of that im- 
provement which, I fully believe, will end in perfect 
restoration by the time you are leaving Torquay.' 
So that I must look upon this winter," she adds, " as 
a j)recious opportunity, which I may never have 
again, of growing in the knowledge of God. It may 
be, that a life of active service is still in store for me ; 
but I delight to think that the future need be no 
source of anxiety to me, and that our chief object 
ought to be to live habitually in dependance on that 
sweet promise, 'As thy day, so shall the strength be/ 
How sweet it is to lie passive in His hands, and tc 
know no will but His !" 



CHAPTER. Y. 

"Our drive through, the vale," writes a Swiss 
traveller, " brought us full in the view of the snowy 
Blurnlis Alps at sunset. What a form of majesty 
and glory ! How he flings the flaming mantle of 
the evening sun down upon us, as if he were him- 
self about to ascend in fire from earth to heaven I" 
Adelaide Newton now enters on a course of discipline 
which reminds us, at every step, of that sun-mantled 
Alp. 

Torquay is a spot around which not a few assem- 
ble sadly fragrant memories. Dear Adelaide is not 
the only saint whose evening sun has here shed its 
cheering rays. But not often has 

"An unimpeded commerce with the sun 7 ' 

illumined with so bright a glory a pilgrim in her 
evening-hour. 

She reached Torquay in November, 1846. At first 
it seemed as if she might again be restored to health. 
" I submitted," she writes, " to a regular visitation 
from Dr. this morning. So far as human fore- 
sight can foretell future events, I suppose I may 
expect ere long to be back again in the world, as I 



TORQUAY. 53 

shall call returning to my old pursuits. It is giving 
up self," she adds, " which is so hard, and which 
makes us most like Christ." 

In her Diary, we find, under January 1, 1847, this 
earliest entry : " Begin this year at Torquay, having 
heen ordered here by Dr. Latham, and in God's mer- 
ciful providence, placed under Dr. 's care. May 

I this year realize by faith, and prayer, and medita- 
tion on such chapters as John xvii., 1 Cor. ii., Eph. 
i. and iii., the personal and substantial presence of 
the Holy Ghost within me, maintaining an absolute 
oneness with the very body of Christ, and in Christ, 
with His Godhead — John xvii. 23. His body, the 
Church, filled with all the fulness of God ! This is 
the hope of my calling, aud this the exceeding riches 
of the glory of my inheritance in the saints !" 

From her new home she writes : " "When you 
think of me, pray that I may have grace to make a 
diligent use of my present opportunities for growing 
in the knowledge and love of God, whilst laid aside 
from ordinary home duties and pursuits. Xever 
apologise," she adds, "for filling a letter with 
thoughts about Christ's Second Coming. What 
theme so worthy of those whom He has taught to be 
looking for Him ? I only long to have my own 
thoughts more perpetually turned towards Him." 

And a week or t wo later, alluding to an instance 
of Divine power attending the words which her cor- 
respondent had spoken, she writes : " I hope it will 
encourage you to visit all you can, sowing the seed 
of the Word, which God will own. You inquire 
5* 



54 MEMOIR OF A . L . NITTOI, 

about myself. Sometimes I am very happy, and 
sometimes under a cloud ; but Jesus is always the 
same. Let us seek to grow up into Him more aud 
more, till we can say from the heart, ' Christ is 

ALL.'" 

Her symptoms became less favourable. " Yester- 
day," she writes, January 8, to one of her sisters, " I 

was saying to Miss E , I should really be sorry 

when the time came for me to leave Torquay. ' I'm 
not sure,' she replied, very kindly, ' that you ever will 
have to leave it.' I instantly replied, ' Oh ! I'm not 
going always to live here.' And she added, ' Well, 

from all Dr. has lately told me, he has quite 

given me the impression, that he thinks it will be 
necessary for you to live in a mild climate.' I am 
not much given to anticipate ; and when I think of 
the extreme uncertainty of life, it would be vain to 
be looking forward : but it proves very plainly to my 
mind, that I have little or no prospect of ever being 
strong, which at times comes over me with a degree 
of shrinking; and yet if it is to make me reflect 
more of the image of a suffering Saviour, I am sure 
I ought to be the last to complain." 

And to the same, on January 15 : "You cannot 
think how I enjoyed the Sacrament ; only I got so 
tired. I don't think I am so well altogether since I 
came here. Some time ago, I never could have 
believed that I could be so happy — cut off from all 
active work for God as I am now. I feel as if it 
would be quite a blessing to have a constant reminder, 
in this body of sin, that this is not my rest. It will 



INCREASING ILLNESS. 55 

be a constant proof of the chastening hand of God 
upon rne." 

And again: "I am more and more persuaded, 
that it is wrong so to long for death, as I sometimes 
do; for nowhere in Scripture is it set before us as a 
subject for hope, but always the Lord's Second Com- 
ing ; and, therefore, it is not our own selfish gratifi- 
cation in the release from such a life which is our 
hope, but the glory of Christ in the perfected con- 
dition of the whole body at His coming. At the 
longest, it is but i a little while/ Oh ! what a com- 
fort ! I am enjoying ' Howe on the Righteous' very 
much ; on Ps. xvii. 15, he speaks so very animatingly 
of likeness to God, and of the glory we shall then 
enter upon ! But what a subject it is for worms 
like us to think about ! Oh ! for growing likeness 
to Him now !" 

It is not easy to praise the Lord in the fires. And 
yet if these fires, not touching a hair of the garment, 
only loose the bonds, is there not cause for praise ! 
" 1 am beoinnino- to think," dear Adelaide writes to 
a fellow-sufferer, at the beginning of February, " that 
His chastenings are actually the strongest proofs of 
His intense love to us ; and how sweet that makes 
them, none know but those who learn it, as you and 
I are learning it now." 

As the winter advanced, her illness grew more 
alarming. A sister, whose " happy privilege it was 
to be appointed her companion," writes : " At the 
end of January she became much worse ; and she 
continued very ill indeed through February and part 



56 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

of March ; but, towards the close of thai month, the 
hectic fever and the unceasingness of her cough rathei 
abated." 

And another trial was added. " I never remember 
to have endured," Adelaide writes to another of her 
sisters, on February 22 (1847), "more intense pain 
than during the last fortnight ; and, the last day or 
two, mental anguish has aggravated bodily suffering, 
to a degree I never at all understood before. I have 
no doubt that Satan took advantage of the state of 
extreme weakness I was reduced to, to make his 
temptations the more effectual; but sponger is He 
that is in us, than he that is against wi, blessed be 
God ! And I delight to tell you, for your own en- 
couragement, that yesterday in the midst of such 
mental darkness and bodily pain, I still felt the as- 
surance that God was the same unchanged God as 
when I was able to feel Him precious to me. I 
could not help thinking that it might be in answer 
to a prayer I have often prayed with trembling, ' that 
I might know Him and the fellowship of His suffer- 
ings,' that I was made to taste of the bitterness of 
that cup which He drank when tempted of the devil ; 
for that, too, was at a season of peculiar bodily weak- 
ness." 

And she adds : u I like to tell you all this, dearest 

N , because I feel it is real experience, which is 

worth many thousand times as much written from 
head-knowledge of Bible-truths. I am certain now 
that it is only in the furnace we are purged from sin. 
And, however trying it may be, I hope you will pray 



GOD S GENTLE PRESSURE. 57 

that God may accomplish all His will in me. I want 
to feel more thankfulness for His chastening love, and 
not to shrink from suffering." 

She began to " get into smoother waters again," 
"Positively, I am wonderfully better," she writes, 
April 9 ; " and what is more, I am thankful to be 
so. It is God's mercy, and shall be continued at 

His pleasure. At one time Dr. thought very 

badly of me, and I really hoped my pilgrimage on 
earth was nearly run ; but if God should call me 
back to the world again, do pray that I may be kept 
from a worldly spirit. In this ' light affliction' God 
has been making me feel, by gentle pressure, that He 
is holding me tightly in His hand. Oh ! what a 
mercy to be so kept !" 

Nothing proves so affectingly our lack of likeness 
to God, as the faintness of our compassion for perish- 
ing souls. God loved the world so much that He 
gave His dear Son for it ; we love the world so little, 
that too often we feel it an effort to tell men that 
God has given Him. One of the lessons which dear 
Adelaide was learning in the school of trial, was an 
intenser sympathy with God in this matter. a I 
wonder," she writes to one of her sisters, ''what you 

and G are doing to-day to make known the 

riches of God's mercy to fallen men. Oh ! the ho- 
nour of rescuing but one soul from— oh ! I wish 
I thought more what it is from. How much more 
thankful we should be, if we d id !" And, on another 
occasion, referring to a woman in her district, who 
was very ill : " Dc give Mrs. P. a kind message from 



58 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

me when you see her, and ask her if she remembers 
a long conversation I had with her last May, urging 
her not to put off seeking Christ till she came to be 
ill ? I suppose she had a l Just as I am ;' will you 
ask her to consider that as my message to her, and 
entreat her not to rest happy one moment till she has 
come to Christ ? I have so often repented of not 

having sent a special message to poor Mrs. E , 

that I am doubly anxious not to lose this oppor- 
tunity ; and I never but once spoke faithfully to Mrs. 
P ." 

If dear Adelaide was unworldly, she was not un- 
human. Her warm, genial heart had an ear for 
nature's symphonies. u The day was lovely," she 
writes, April 14, " and this place so exquisitely beau- 
tiful, that perhaps natural feelings excite me too 
much. Yet God has given us all these things 'richly 
to enjoy ;' and when we can enjoy them, I believe we 
ought. Sometimes it is a burden to me even to hear 
the birds sing, so little do I yet know of the joy God 
has in all His works !" 

One of her greatest trials this winter was her 
inability to attend public ordinances. In her Diary, 
she writes: "Sunday, April 11. — The thirteenth 
Sunday spent at home ! 4 Lord, show me wherefore 
thou contendest with me.' " And writing to a 
friend, April 20, she says : " It is now fourteen Sun- 
days since I was in church ; and you may imagine 
what this is to me, who, sooner than stay away, have 
more than once actually got up out of bed to go. 



LONELY SABBATHS. 59 

But God is able to make all grace abound towards 
me." 

A little incident, which had occurred at Leylands 
the previous summer, illustrates this feature of her 
character. Living at some distance from town, sho 
was not in the habit of attending evening service, 
"We were dreadfully starved," writes one of her 
sisters, " with our afternoon sermons that summer ; 
and she and I were allowed to 0*0 in the evening 
again in consequence, as long as daylight lasted. 
But each Sunday we feared it would be the last. 
When it came, I was comforting myself by singing 
hymns in the garden, whilst the bells were ringing 
for evening service. Presently she came out, saying, 
c How can you sing V I reminded her of an expo- 
sition we had heard and enjoyed at a friend's house, 
on Ps. cx.xxi., and said, ' I was trying to behave 
and quiet myself like a weaned child.' ' Oh,' she 
said, ' so was I ; but those seem so blessed who can 
still be praising God in His house — who can dwell 
there ; — I long for it so. To hear the bells is more 
than I can bear ; I shut myself in my room, and 
buried my head, while I was trying to bear the dis- 
appointment.' " 

And she "took heed how she heard." The same 
informant adds : " She never would speak, if she 
could avoid it, after leaving church, and often 

beo-Dwl I would not talk to her as we walked home. 

00 

even though it should only be about the sermon we 
had heard." 

But, shut out from the sanctuary, dear Adelaide 



60 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

had other joys. "I enjoy my Bible," she writes, 
April 23, "when quite alone, so that I have no room 
for complaining. I can never be sufficiently thank- 
ful for having such an opportunity of learning some- 
thing of God, and of what He becomes to us in 
Christ — a very present help in trouble." And to 
her sister, a day or two later, thus : " I sometimes 
enjoy my lonely Sundays very much, and tiiey go 
quicker than ever. And no wonder, when they are 
spent in the study of that blessed Word which is the 
very life of the soul ! God can feed us both with 

Himself, dear N , without either ministers or 

church ; and it is well worth being deprived of the 
comfort of either or both, to be driven to Him, the 
fountain of living waters. 

" 'Break all thy schemes of earthly joy, 
That thou rnayest find thine all in Me 1" 

Is not that just our experience at this very time ?" 

And in another direction she was tasting the same 
flesh-crucifying but soul-profiting experience. "I 
see plainly," she writes, " that both in you and in me 
there is a tendency to form an idolatrous kind of at- 
tachments ; and God in mercy makes us feel that they 
are not Himself. What a bitter lesson it is to learn, 
and how much teaching we have taken to learn even 
what we have learned !" 

Herbert, in his " Country Parson," has a chapter 
on " The Parson in Circuit," in which he describes, 
after his )wn quaint fashion, the method of a true 
shepherd. Describing a visit from a dear servant of 



THE SUNKEN FENCE. 61 

Christ, who had come a considerable distance to see 
her, Adelaide writes, "April 9 (1847) :" 

"Mr. Dallas walked up to the window at Holm 
Cottage with B., about half-past two ; and as he came 
into the room, and took my hand — while we stood, 
he prayed that the Holy Spirit might be with ns, to 
make our intercourse profitable and to God's glory, 
for Jesus Christ's sake. 

"As B. walked up with him, he had asked if he 

might speak out plainly to me, or if I could not 

bear the thought of death, &c. ? She said he might ; 

so the moment she left the room, he began to talk 

to me, asking me if I thought much about going to 

be with Christ ? if I could bear to think about dying, 

or if I felt afraid of it ? When I said I did not, he 

said it was right to have a sense of the horrid nature 
© 

of death as part of the curse of sin, and that it 
should not be regarded as a light thing. But he 

© © © 

was l very thankful' to find that he might talk to me 
so quietly about it ; and he said, what a wonderful 
thing it was that two redeemed sinners could talk in 

© 

that way of what the world shrinks from the bare 
mention of. How it magnified the grace of God, 

which had wrought such a change in us ! He said 

© © 

he hoped I could look on death as a sunken fence, 
and look over it and beyond it to the glory on the 
other side. Then he talked a great deal about the 
Second Coming of Jesus, the first resurrection, and 
how near he thinks it is. 

" He spoke next to me about depressions in illness 
— the mind being acted on by the body— that at 
6 



62 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OX. 

such times, whatever we may feel, the "believer is 
just as safe as when asleep, and that the very sorrow 
we feel at our inability to pray, &c, is actually com- 
munion with God — it is the Spirit working in our 
hearts. He also talked to me about sleep. He said 
the best remedy for calming an agitated mind (which, 
after all, was the cause generally of wakeful nights) 
was to fix the mind on one thought, such as Christ 
upon the cross. 

" Then he knelt down and prayed for me, that I 
might enjoy much of His presence — much of the 
Spirit's teaching — very near and close communion 
with God — a sense of acceptance through Jesus, that 
all God's purposes might be fulfilled, and the end of 
my coming here, <fec, be fully realized, and that I 
might have patience to wait God's appointed time 
for going to be with Jesus, <fcc, &e. Then he prayed 
for B., and for each member of our family, and for 
all we loved in the Lord, and that such as were not 
yet, might be speedily gathered into His fold; so 
that, whether we were among the dead in Christ, or 
the living who were to be caught up to meet them, 
we might be ' for ever with the Lord.' " 

We give these jottings, both as indicating the 
method of visitation which meets such an invalid's 
necessities, and also as opening up a glimpse into 
dear Adelaide's own heart, 

Grace had adorned with a most engaging patience 
a temperament naturally somewhat quick. " As we 
moved from lodging to lodging," says her sister, who 
was with her, " suiting the warmer and lower situa- 



PATIENCE UNDER LITTLE TRIALS. 63 

tions to the colder weeks of winter, she rejoiced in 
believing that in each she gained something which 
she could not have had without the move, though 
that moving was in itself irritating to her natural dis- 
position, and sometimes, when so ill, a real trial." 

" In every lodging," her sister adds, " she studied 
to make friends with our landlady and servants in 
order to do them good. Though I chiefly waited 
upon her, some things — such as cleaning her rooms, 
lighting her bedroom fire, &c. — brought her into 
immediate contact with the young servant girls, and 
her patience with each one having to be taught ex- 
actly how she wanted things to be done, often struck 
me. One, a girl named Jemima, especially annoyed 
her. She was very dull ; yet dearest Adelaide beg- 
ged me to try and teach her about spiritual things — 
would often ask about her interest in them, and if 
I observed any — and afterwards she took her in 
hand herself. Indeed, several of these people have 
told me how they prized her words, and that they 
believed they ' had got quite a blessing from her.' " 

In May, " it was thought that the journey and the 
excitement of going home would most probaby 
aggravate her illness beyond the hope of recovery." 
" I have had a most precious winter here," she writes, 
May 14, "during which God has been teaching me 
for eternity. Oh ! how sweet it is to hold commu- 
nion with our Heavenly Father ! It is just a fore- 
taste of what heaven will be ; but there we shall be 
freed from these vile, clogging bodies. To be told 
you have an incurable disease is nothing alarming to 



64 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

me ; so far from it, that it only makes me hope Q#& 
will soon accomplish His work in me, if such be llis 
will, and then take me to be — where He is ! "W lidt 
a thought !" 

A month later, however, she had so far recov red 
as to warrant her return to Leylands. "And so 
ends," she writes in her Diary on June 15, " my 
happy, privileged sojourn of betwixt seven and ei jhl 
months at Torquay ! I think it has been with no 3 a 
training place for heaven, though God has not s-„en 
meet to transplant me there. Oh ! for a more thank- 
ful heart for the very peculiar tenderness which has 
marked all His dealings with me, and rendered it so 
sweet, so endeared a spot to me during my pilgrim- 
age, especially in regard to the sweet communion 
with Christian friends, much of which will, I trust 
not pass away as fruitless, but remain for eternity ! 
I thank God for giving them to me just when He 
knew I needed the comfort of them. May I trust 
Him for sufficient grace for every future need !" 

And on reaching home, she writes to a friend : " I 
am here again for a time, though I must spend the 
few next winters in Torquay, they tell me, if I live. 
Oh ! what an if that is ! God has been preparing 
me for going to be with Him in His own time, be it 
sooner or later. I only pray that, if His will is that 
I should live, my life may be more than ever devoted 
to His single service." 

And, indeed, she " did what she could." Writing 
at this period to the Secretary of the Irish Missions, 
she says : " I enclose O'Connor's salary for the nex* 



A S E C RET. 65 

quarter. I am thankful to be well enough to write 
and read, and work. I think now that it will become 
mv duty to do what needlework I can for the Soci- 
ety, as more active work is impossible. In that and 
in some such ways I may do something, however 
little, in the service of that Redeemer who, when He 
bought me, bought my time and talents, and requires 
all to be used for His glory." 

One of the methods by which she helped forward 
the work in Ireland was by her pen. ~\Ve close this 
chapter with a specimen of some of her earnest ap- 
peals to the Irish heart : 

"a secret: 
11 * His secret is with the righteous.' 

" I've just heard a bit of uncommon good news 
from Ireland ; and in these times, when the plague 
is already begun among the people, I think it is a 
shame to keep it to myself. 

"Everybody knows how bad the cholera is, and 
nobody can say that they mayn't be the next to be 
taken with it ; but everybody does not know how to 
live through it. 

" I've just heard of a ' Healer ;' and if you like to 
know where He is, I'll tell you. The word ' Jesus,' 
in Irish, means 'Healer;' and Jesus is the most 
wonderful man for healing disease that ever was 
heard of. It is true He is out of sight ; but then He 
is in heaven, every bit as true a man as He was when 
He came down from the mountain and the leper met 
Him, saying, l Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst lnaks 



bb MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

me clean. And Jesus put forth His Laud and 
touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean.' And 
His Word had that divine power in it, that ' imme- 
diately his leprosy was cleansed. 5 (Matt. viii. 2, 3.) 

"If Jesus was a Healer then, Jesus is a Healer 
still. But the most wonderful part of the secret is, 
that His Word has got that divine power in it, that, 
to anybody who asks, He can give life without end, 
and cure them of death altogether. ' The gift of 
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 
(Rom. vi. 23.) He can send a breath of the Spirit 
of life into us, and make our bodies temples of the 
Holy Ghost, so that no matter what may happen to 
the earthly hut of these clay tabernacles which we 
now inhabit — they may decay and they may die, but 
the immortal inhabitant lives on and on for ever ! The 
spirit of life which is in them only changes earth for 
heaven ; and, since it came from heaven, it's no 
grief to it to return to heaven. It only wants to 
take all it loves alono* with it. 

" Who will come ? Who will get this heavenly 
life, and go to heaven when they die ? I verily 
believe it only wants asking for. 

" There is one thing more about this secret, and 
that is, why so few people give any credit to it ? My 
answer is, just because it is ' secret.' If Jesus the 
4 Healer' was seen walking in the streets, some few 
might believe their own eyes when they saw Him. 
But this is what I have to say : 

" He will be seen soon— -for ' every eye shall see 
Him' — but it will be too late to be healed then. 



THE HEALER. 67 

He is the Healer — now. The cures are wrought by 
faith, not by sight. The life is the Holy Spirit. It 
is secret now — ' Your life is hid with Christ in God.' 
But it will be plain enough by and bye, ' For when 
Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also 
appear with Him in glory.' (Col. iii. 3, 4.) 
" l A man shall be as an hiding place.' " 



CHAPTER VI. 

u I am certain there must be more growth in grace, 
more study of the Word and character of God, and 
more time given to it — in fact, it must be more our 
business (Luke ii. 49) — if we are to be exalted 
Christians." In these words — written in June, 1847 
— Adelaide Newton indirectly expressed her own 
personal life. 

" It was indeed a privilege," writes one who knew 
her well at this period, "to be with her and to enjoy 
her heaven-born thoughts. 

lt ' In everything she said or did, 
There was a touch of heaven.' 

I was struck, especially, with her complete absorp- 
tion in the Bible. She was always digging in the 
precious mine ; and this gave to her mind a peculiar 
tone — that of searching for the mind of God in 
everything." 

In reading the Word, she was never content if 
God was " silent" to her. " Silence," we find her 
writing, " betwixt our souls and God is one of the 
most painful trials we endure ; even as we know the 



ABSORPTION IN THE BIBLE. 69 

bitter trial it is when a much-loved friend will not 
speak to us. David felt what it was to be silent 
towards God through his sin. ' When /kept silence, 
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day 
long; my moisture is turned into the drought of 
summer.' It brings such withering deadness over 
the soul. Oh ! why do we not ' acknowledge' — speak 
out — ' our iniquity V David knew also what it was 
for God to be silent towards him : hence his prayer 
— ' Be not silent to me ; lest, if thou be silent to me, 
I become like them that go down into the pit.' The 
word rendered ' silence' denotes a willing or voluntary 
silence as opposed to being 'dumb' and unable to 
speak. How often we provoke the Lord to silence ! 
like a father who cannot talk freely to his child, be- 
cause it has displeased him ! Alas ! how many hours 
and days, as well a3 moments, we lose in silence, 
which might be spent in happy, holy intercourse 
with our God ! How blessed it is when He is ' not 
silent' — when we hear His voice in every word wo 
read in Scripture — when we hear Him speaking 
'peace!' ' Speak, Lord P " 

Here lay the secret of her heavenly walk. It was 
literally a walk with God — a living fellowship — an 
interchange of thought — God uttering His thoughts 
to her in the Word, and she uttering her thoughts 
to God at the throne. On either side she could not 
brook ■' silence." 

It was this holy and happy fellowship with the 
Father and with the Son which gave to her words 
and to her whole life so sweet a fragrance. "Iain 



70 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

sure that letter-writ ng only on ordinary subjects" 
she says, July 7 (1847), " is a sad waste of precious 
time, and very unpardonable amongst the Lord's 
people, who ought, in their writing, as well as in their 
life and conversation, to be different from the world 
around them." And she proceeds : " It is very try- 
ing for all three of you to be so much out of health ; 

but, dearest M , you are able to feel that it 

is all exactly right and for the very best, are you 
not ? We who know something of the utterly un- 
satisfying nature of this world's worth, through sick- 
ness or bereavement or other trials, feel the want of 
One who can sympathize with us in it all, and is in 
Himself sufficient to make amends for all. And 
surely Jesus is ! We only need to know Him, to be 
sure of it ; and every fresh view of Him shows but 
the more entirely how ' altogether lovely' He is." 

A friend had asked her if she thought it " a duty 
to pray for restoration to health." Replying to the 
inquiry, July 9, she says : " Don't you think it 
would not be wrong to do so, even though it were 
God's purpose not to grant it ? for we have the 
example of Christ Himself praying earnestly for 
what God never intended to grant; only, it was 
with Him, and ought always to be with us, accom- 
panied by, c Nevertheless, not what I will, but what 
thou wilt.' From this, would it not almost seem as 
if we might pray about anything and everything, so 
long only as we ask all in submission to the will of 
God i Don't you think that God will in some way 
or other hinder us from asking what we ought not, 



SYMPATHY OF CHRIST. 71 

or asking too determinately for any particular thiug, 
as He did St, Paul ? He was set upon the removal 
of the ' thorn in the flesh,' and prayed (he s&ys) 
thrice about it ; and then God stopped him, not 
telling him he had done wrong, but only assuring 
him that His grace was sufficient to enable him to 
bear it. I readily believe He will deal with us in the 
same way, and that sincere prayer for the teaching 
of God's Spirit in prayer will save us from praying 
sinfully." 

In her Diary, on July 14, she writes: "Read 
Canticles. Oh ! to come into the chambers — the 
secret presence — of my Beloved ! to have sweet fore- 
tastes now of the heavenly communion to be enjoyed 
with Him in glory ! (Ps. lxxiii. 25)." And, another 
day, she records a visit from a friend who prayed 
" that, having been separated from others for so long, 
it might be evident to them now that she had been 
with Jesus." 

Like Andrew going forth that morning in search 
of Simon, to speak of Him with whom he had passed 
the night, dear Adelaide now with a new devoted- 
Bess everywhere commended Christ. " Oh ! what a 
God we have to do with !" she writes, on July 15 : 
" what tenderness, sympathy, and wise, unerring love, 
guide His hand in all His dealings with us ! If 
any one ever had reason to boast of the loving-kind- 
ness of the Lord, it surely must be myself. Time 
would fail me to tell of the great tenderness He 
has shown towards me : but you may take encour- 
agement, from what He has done for me, that you. 



12 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

too, will find Him the same God. He changes 
not !" 

Her state of health since her return home, she 
notes in the same letter, thus : "I am come home 
much better, but weak and good for nothing, and 
quite obliged to be idle. I believe I look very well, 
and at times I feel very well ; but there are hours of 
weariness which none know but those who know 
what real illness is. How precious to feel that each 
is measured out by our loving Father, and is really 
working out for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory ! I have thought of you very often 
in your peculiarly trying circumstances. To see the 
band of God in each, renders them almost welcome ; 
for it is a peculiar honour and privilege to suffer 
with Christ, and will assuredly end in ' reigning with 
Him.' " 

She was no cynic, but rejoiced, like the Master, 
to make all around her happy. Delicately temper- 
ing congratulations with a seasonable admonition, she 

writes to a schoolfellow thus : " Well, dear F , 

as you have often sympathized with my sufferings, 
you must now let me sympathize with your joys. 

Provided be (as I cannot but suppose, from 

your choice, he is) a fellow-member of the one Body 
likewise with us, and one who will seek to strengthen 
your hands in the Lord, I offer you my heartfelt 
congratulations. I am far from looking on marriage 
and love as trifling or unsacred subjects; they are 
designed of God amongst men, as I feel convinced, 
to set forth the love and marriage-union of Christ to 



LITTLE CONFESSIONS. 73 

His Bride, the Church, and are, or may be, sweet 
and holy earthly ties. But it has strongly been on 
my mind lately, that they are ties only for time. In 
heaven, they neither marry, nor are given in mar- 
riage, but are as the angels. And now, they that 
have wives, are bid to be as though they had none, 
because the world passeth away ! It must be re- 
membered constantly that the sweet enjoyments of 
such mutual affections must be held in subordination 
to the lasting, ceaseless, pure, and unrestrained affec- 
tion which, through time and eternity, must exist 
between the soul and Jesus ! All that comes in sub- 
ordination to this, dearest F , I wish you ; and 

this itself, the strongest, purest, and most intense en- 
joyment in personal interchange of love with Jesus, 
I wish you also !" 

" I am very decidedly stronger as to general 
health,'' she adds, "and get on very well as long as 
I don't attempt to get into the carriage or go beyond 
the garden. But my chest is often painful ; and, 
though slowly, I believe disease still makes some 
progress there. It is only doing the divinely-ap- 
pointed work, and in God's own time and way 
too." 

Some Christians take a morbid pleasure in " mak- 
ing little confessions" of their unprofitableness ; and 
they mope over their vileness, until they grow proud 
of their very humility. For this "sore evil" Ade- 
laide understood the Divine remedy. " I have had 
such a dear girl with me to-day f " she writes, " the 
ni&ce of those two sisters who were with us at Tor- 



74 MEMOIR OF A* L. NEWTON. 

quay, and who are both gone Lome. She used to 
say to me there — ' Oh ! if I only knew that I was 
God's child, how happy I should be !' and I used to 
tell her that the less she thought of herself in that 
way the better — for if she tried to think of God as 
her Father, she would soon find out that indeed she 
was His child. She has grown in grace wonderfully, 
and kept telling me over and over again to-day what 
a happy thing religion is ! She tells Jesus every- 
thing — all her wishes, all her feelings, right and 
wrong, and all her little hourly troubles. No matter 
who is by, she tells Him everything, because nobody 
can hear her ; and when she is alone, she reads her 
Bible, and prays over it and feasts on it. Yet not 
one of her family now is like-minded. Her two 
aunts, who loved Christ, are gone to be with Him. 
It has done me good to see her, her faith is so very 
simple. Just what she finds in the Bible she believes ; 
and she says that sometimes, when she feels too wicked 
to dare to pray, she says to herself, 'Oh, but / am 
nothing. I'm not seen ; it's only Jesus that is seen; 
and / don't pray, but the Holy Spirit makes inter- 
cession within me.' I can't help just telling you 
about her, becauss you will see how others feel with 
regard to those precious truths I have tried to tell 
you of. They were an unspeakable comfort to a lady 
in York," she adds, " to whom I wrote frequently 
till she died this summer, only telling her of Jesus. 
That prayer in Psalm xxxv. 3, c Say unto my soul, I 
am thy salvation,' struck her very much. I told her 
I thought it said so very much in so few words — 



MOUNTING TO THE SKY. 7 5 

God doing everything for us from first to last, so 
that our salvation is wholly in Him." 

And again she writes : " One thing which has 
particularly struck me lately is the freeness of God's 
gift of Christ, especially in those words in the fifth 
of Romans — ' the grace of God,' and ' the gift by 
grace' — given without one single thing in us to ren- 
der us deserving of it. "Oh! are we not obliged 
sometimes to give vent to our grateful astonishment 
in those words, 'Thanks be unto God for His un- 
speakable gift V I think it is the freeness of it 
which makes it such a stumbling-block to many. 
We can't give God credit for being as good as He 
is." 

In one of his touching little sonnets, Herbert utters 
a longing of his heart thus : 

11 I go to church; help me to wings, that I 
Will thither fly : 
Or, if I mount unto the sky, 
I will do more." 

Again, this summer, dear Adelaide was shut out 
from " church ;" but her soul, nevertheless, was ever 
"mounting to the sky." On August 1 (1847), wo 
find her, whilst alone in her chamber, throwing her 
thoughts into the following simple lines, founded on 
Song ii. 3, and on Ps. lxxxix. 15 : 

'•"While from Thine earthly courts ascend 
Loud Hallelujahs to Thy praise, 
Lord, to the { still small voice' attend, 
Thy feeble ones in secret raise, 



76 M EMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

" "While others taste the bread and wine, 

The outward signs which Thou hast given, 

Oh ! feast our souls with love divine — 

That ; living bread' sent down from heaven, 

u While they are walking in the light, 

"Which flows from Thee., its living Source, 
Ala- vre sl1 with great delight ;' 

To the same Fountain have recourse! 

M Beneath the ' of the Rock, 

Defended from the burning sun, 
Refresh Thy weary, feeble flock : 
Thence streams of living water run. 

*' May those who tarry still at home 

' Divide the spoil' with those who go : 
Spirit of truth and comfort come, 
Make every heart with joy o'erflow ! 

"Oh! May Thy Church below now ; taste' 
The sweetness of redeeming love ; 
And to the Church triumphant haste, 
To share Thy fulness, Lord, above '," 

As the autumn approached, she began to contem- 
plate another removal to Torquay. "I honestly con- 
fess,*' she writes, on August 21. ;, I am not yet 
reconciled to the idea of leaving home so soon again. 
As you most truly said, if our wills were conformed 
to the will of God, we should no longer know what 
trials mean. I was greatly struck with an observa- 
tion of Lady Powerscourt yesterday, that where God 
sends a trial. He sends it where He knows it will be 
felt," 



MARRIED TO CHRIST. 77 

Then alluding to the " cloud of witnesses." in Heb. 
xii. 1, she adds : ,; Some of them have lately been 
almost more present to me than the earthly wit- 
nesses, I do so like the feeling of having them there; 
it's almost like a resting-place for one's thoughts, 
though they are kept waiting for us to be perfected. 
But they have bidden adieu to this changeful, up- 
and-down world, and are with the Lord ; and there 
is certainly something that gives one a feeling of 
calm repose in that thought, which cannot be got at 
by any other means. And yet we are in Him as 
truly as they are ; and when faith gets uppermost, 
and sinks sight and seen things below the surface for 
a while, one can catch glimpses of their joy. Alas ! 
that they should be so few and far between ! But 
we shall soon be there too. How quickly time is 
hastening; our re-union, is it not V 

And, writing to another friend, on September 9, 
she says : " Since I have been at home, I have been 
studying in Canticles with great delight : and I hope 
I have got to realize the union of Christ with His 
people in a way I never did before. It is union in 
the covenant, so that all the changers in one's feel- 
ings, affections, &c, &<%, &c, alter it not. "We are 
married to Christ ; and what God hath joined to- 
gether, can in no wise be cut asunder. TVith Him 
Ms no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' 
Precious truth ! He loved us while we were sinners, 
and He loves us while we are backsliding (Hos. xi 
7, 8, 9) ; for His is unchangeable, everlasting love. 
(Jer xxxi. 3.) I am so thankful that, amidst terrible 

i 



78 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

seasons of coldness and indifference, and want of 
realizing anything of these eternal truths, He has 
mercifully enabled me to remember that He changes 
not towards me !" 

A friend had written to her, complaining of being 
content to seek after " Jesus in a lukewarm, heart- 
less spirit." Adelaide replied : " I got a kind rebuke 
from a dear Christian friend the other day, which 
points out the true remedy, I am sure for the evil 
which you lament, and, in short, for every evil, 
every sin, which separates betwixt us and God. She 
says, f I find a great help, when tempted to be low 
in mind, to shut out as much as possible thinking of 
self, in any way, or even of death, but to meditate on 
Jesus, to remember His presence with me, when I 
think, or speak, lie or sit. Oh ! it is sweet thus to 
enter into Jesus — to delight in Him — to think of His 
perfections — His love, His humility, His patience. 
If we ask God's Spirit to give us these sweet, lively, 
realizing views of Jesus, will He deny us ? Is it not 
His especial office to £ take of the things of Christ, 
and show them unto us' ? I shall long to hear that 
you have again found sweet - access with confidence' 
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So inex- 
pressibly precious is that blood to God the Father, 
that the soul on which it is sprinkled becomes un- 
speakably precious to Him also. And the very 
mention of it in prayer is a plea from which He can 
never turn away !' ? 

Her health continued in the same infirm state. " I 
am only able," she writes, September 9, " to go down- 



DIARY. 79 

stairs for prayers and breakfast ; and the rest of the 
day, except when I am out, I hardly ever move off 
the sofa. Still, through God's mercy, I am able to 
write, read, and work ; and I trust He is making use 
of me in some humble ways, though not just the ways 
I should choose." 

In her diary, on August 31 (1847), we find this 
entry : " Mrs. Fitchett came to see me : she told me 
Betty Fox had charged her with the message that, 
if we never met again in this world, she believed we 
should in another ; that she owed more to me than 
she could ever say, and to my going round the 
district, where it seems as if God had condescended 
to make some use of me ; for Mrs. Fitchett told me 
she could say the same thing, and she was sure many 
others could, too. May the Lord keep me from 
vain-glory, or from taking more comfort from hearing 
such things than He intends ! Ps. cxv. 1 ought to 
be my heartfelt language ; for how much more might 
I not have done, had I only had a single eye ! 
Double motives must have robbed me ' of much of 
my reward." 

Will not the measure of future glory depend upon 
the measure of present service ? A place in the 
kingdom depends upon the " finished" work of 
Christ ; but does not the place depend upon the 
individual attainments in suffering and iii service ? 
"I have been wondering so much this morning," 
says she, " why, and for what ends, God is dealing 
thus with me, and what my life is now preparing for 
me in eternity. I have thought so much about 



80 MEMOIR OF A . L . XEWTON. 

'sowing seed' lately (Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6), that my 
reason seems to say, i I wish to live ;' and yet my 
heart rebels as much as ever. I hope God will bless 

1 The Shadow of Death.' S told me < she felt 

as if it were to be the means of delivering her from 
the bondage she had been in all her life.' Don't be 
distressed if you find you cannot speak to the people 
as you wish. Remember, it is not you that speak, 
but God that speaks through you. My constant 
comfort just now is, that God's Spirit may breathe 
through us." 

On September 21, she again reached Torquay, her 
" general health so much better" since she had left 
it in May, that her physician, on examining her 
shortly after her arrival, " could only thank God for 
His blessing. 5 ' 



CHAPTER VII. 

u Martyrdoms," says Lord Bacon, in one of Lis 
Essays, ''I reckon amongst miracles, because they 
exceed the strength of human nature." 

Of martyrdoms there are two kinds. " Perhaps," 
writes Cecil, " it is a greater energy of Divine power 
which keeps the Christian from day to day, from 
year to year, praying, hoping, running, believing, 
against all hindrances — which maintains him a liv- 
ing martyr, than that which bears him up for an 
hour in sacrificing himself at the stake." Bacon, in 
his Essay above quoted, has the same thought ; for, 
after " reckoning martyrdoms amongst miracles, be- 
cause they exceed the strength of human nature " he 
adds : " I may do the like of superlative and admi- 
rable holiness of life." 

It is this kind of martyrdom which is before us in 
the subject of our Memoir. And each successive 
season seems to encircle it with a brighter halo of 
Divine glory. 

Writing to one of her sisters from her " new tent 
in the wilderness," she says : " The first note I write 
is to you, on a day which, I trust, is to both of us 
but a foretaste and pledge of that eternal Sabbath 
which l remaineth' for us. Oh ! what a prospect for 



82 MEMOIR OF A. L. NBWfOI. 

souls which find no rest for the soles of their feet on 
the ocean of life ! Tossed to and fro, sometimes in 
their temporal circumstances, sometimes from one 
home to another, sometimes in their souls — heat 
about and buffeted by the god of this world, and 
tormented by the evil workings of their corrupt 
natures, till really they do literally feel like the d 
out of the ark, hovering over a boundless expanse of 
ocean ! I never felt so more than lately. I have 
been tried both outwardly and inwardly, and can 
most heartily sympathise with you in those words 
you used, ' Not doubting, but hoping against hope.' 

I feel satisfied that this very experience, dearest , 

is the strongest proof that we are in Christ. We are 
like vessels tossing about upon the water, yet firmly 
and securely fixed to the anchor. As long as the 
confident hope and expectation of the soul is from 
Christ (however little comfort or enjoyment there 
may be in looking to Rim), the soul is exercising 
true and living faith ; and perhaps faith is never so 
strong as when it clings to Him in the dark — I mean, 
without sensible enjoyment." 

How was she girded for this " living martyrdom ¥* 
" Her enjoyment of prayer was frequently expressed,*' 
writes her sister, " when we were together in Devon ; 
and she would often get upon the subject by 
questioning me as to my own stated times for 
prayer, comfort in ejaculatory prayer, and whether I 
felt able to continue the habit she knew dear Mr. 
Dallas had urged me to seek — I mean, praying when 
I walked. She loved herself to pray at night near 



COMFORTED OF GOD. 83 

the window, gazing up to the stars ; and, in every 
room she occupied, she had one particular chair or 
spot thus consecrated. l Do not I fill heaven and 
earth V was once quoted as comforting her with the 
delightful consciousness of being so surrounded with 
God, that her very prayerful thoughts — I mean 
prayer fuln ess not taking so distinct a form as to pass 
into words — were known, and, as it were, heard by 
Him. And thus, when occasionally out in a Bath- 
chair, I have heard her express her felt communion, 
and her delightful realization of His near and all- 
pervading presence." 

Herself "comforted of God," she knew how to 
solace fellow-pilgrims. "It seems to me the only 
comfort," she writes to a bereaved mother, No- 
vember 22 (1847), "in looking at such of God's 
dealings with us as are otherwise perfectly inex- 
plicable, that He is doing what He wills with His 
own; and, since 'He does all things well' — since 
1 His work is perfect' — since all He does He 
makes ' to work together for good to them that love 
Him,' it seems to leave us without ground of com- 
plaint, whilst God is trying our faith, to see whether 
we can trust Him so to order each event of our lives 
now as best to promote our eternal happiness and 
His own glory. It is a great exercise of faith ; and 
yet how can we doubt it ? I never felt the comfort 
of that twentieth chapter of Matthew so much before 
as I do now : to think that your deal, dear baby, who 
had literally ' continued one hour only,' should be 
made equal to those who had ' borne the burden and 



84 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

heat of the day,' is a very precious thought to me, 
and seems to magnify the sovereignty of God's grace. 
I can only pray that God may enable you to trace 
His 4 bright designs,' l treasured up,' as Cowper so 
beautifully says, Mn deep unfathomable mines of 
never-failing grace.' May the God of love and 
peace and of all comfort be with you !" 

On another occasion, after " a most dreary and 
desolate day," she writes : " This kind of life makes 
me feel as if, perhaps, it were God's way of answer- 
ing my prayer to be conformed to Christ's image. 
He was perfect through sufferings — sufferings of all 
kinds; and so, I suppose, must His followers be. 
A thought," she adds, on Gen. xxix. 20, " has made 
me feel quite ashamed of being in such a hurry to 
die ; if years of service seemed so little to Jacob for 
the love he had to Rachel, what ought they seem to 
us for Chirst ?" 

For six weeks that her sister w r as obliged to be 
absent from Torquay, Adelaide was one of a small 
circle in a boarding-house. Alluding to her " utter 
inability to speak to these people," she adds : " But 
I pray that God may use me to say what He wants 
saying to them. My mind was very much struck in 
reading Ps. cxxiii.T, 2, some days ago, with the idea 
of looking up to God every morning for direction 
what to do, just as a servant to a master or mistress. 
This seems to me the secret of real happiness — to be 
what God makes us to all around us." 

Three years afterwards, a lady who had been of 
that circle died. On her deathbed she informed the 



OKLY ONE LIFE. 85 

minister who visited her, that to Adelaide Xewton 
she ower 1 , instrumentally, her conversion. And four 
other inmates of that house looked upon those 
precious weeks as a season to them of new life. 

It was thus that she sowed beside all waters the 
seed of the kingdom. And the sowing quickened 
her own heavenliness i; In Phil. i. 22, 23," she writes 
at this period, ' ; Paul evidently considered that c the 
fruit of his labour' made it worth while to abide in 
the rlesh, however he might long to depart. I 
believe this is the lesson I have been learning most 
of late." 

Only one life ! one sowing-time ! one season of 
laying up treasure in heaven ! Realizing that thought 
with a new vividness, she writes : " I don't feel as 
rebellious about life as I did. I have been thinking 
about it as the sowing-time for eternity. Oh ! that 
we were only sowing continually to the Spirit ! 
"What a rich harvest we might expect to reap here- 
after ! and what a full compensation for all our tears 
by the way !" 

Her illness was ao-ain manifesting bad symptoms. 
" You will be sorry to hear,' 5 she writes on January 
13 (1848), "that my chest is much worse." And 
she acids : " Such are our poor frail tenements of 
clay. Is it not very humbling to look upon all 
kinds of disease as the fruit of sin and of the curse 

of God r 

But her soul mounted up on wings as eagles'. 
' ; Oh ! how I wish," she says, " that I could live up 
to my privileges, and walk worthy of my high call- 

8 



86 MEMOIR OF A. L. NX W TO H, 

ing ! Pray for me, that, as I draw near the close 
of ray earthly pilgrimage (and how the days and 
hours, weeks and years, do fly !), I may more anl 
more realize my true position as 'accepted in the 
Beloved. 5 " 

And one feature of her growing heavenliness is 
singled out thus : " Is there not a selfish feeling in 
desiring one's own happiness after death, rather than 
desiring the perfected bliss of the whole body at the 
glorious appearing of Christ ( Nowhere in Scripture 
is death set forth as an object of hope, but always 
Christ's Second Coming. I believe you will find 
meditation on the Second Coming to be of all truths 
the most quickening. I don't know how ycu feel; 
but of late I have been horrified to find a secret 
backwardness to cry with my whole heart, 'Come 
quickly !' and this, too, whilst 1 have thought of 
death as the greatest ' gain.' " 

In her diary, on January 1 (1848), we have the 
following : u Commenced another stage of my jour- 
ney — another year of my pilgrimage through life, 
at Torquay. May every step be ' ordered by the 
Lord,' and in His Word — ' leaning on my Beloved !' 
1 My times are in Thy hand,' O Lord. Living or 
dying, may I be Thine, and have no will but to do 
Thy will ! Yfhilst I live may I sow seed for eternity 
every moment, which shall yield an abundant har- 
vest to 'the Lord of the harvest!' And in close 
union and communion with Jesus — in the power of 
resurrection-life, may I be dead to sin, and c be 
clothed with humility? whilst soaring to the 



THOUGHTS ON GOD. 87 

height of that glory which He gives to His mem* 
bers !" 

The " humility" which arises from " soaring to 
the height of the glory" is not a counterfeit but a 
real humility. It is in the joyful fellowship of a 
reconciled Father, not in a " fearful" doubting of His 
love, that the heart is truly humbled. 

" Well said the wisdom of earth — ' mortal ! know thyself;' 
But better the wisdom of heaven — ' man ! learn thou 

thy God. 
Learn God; thou shaft know thyself." 

"Don't you think," Adelaide writes, "that it is 
exactly in proportion as we walk in the light that 
we become aware of surrounding darkness. I have 
fancied that this was implied in 1 John i. 7 ; where, 
after speaking of our walking in the light it is im- 
mediately added, 'And the blood of Jesus Christ His 
Son cleanseth us from all sin' — as if we could not 
bear the sight of what the light would expose to our 
view, without that to fall back upon." 

Cecil writes : " The man who is yet carnal, if 
taken into a closet and forced to meditate on God 
and eternity, will find it insupportable. But the 
spiritual man is born, as it were, into a new world ; 
he has a new taste ; he savours the thing of the 
Spirit ; he turns to God, as the needle to the pole." 
With dear Adelaide it was natural to speak of 
Christ, not forced and artificial. For example, in a 
very familiar note to one of her sisters, we find her 
poiuing out her heart thus : " Except on the one 



66 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

subject, which never grows old, it's of no use 
writing anything, in a note which may not reach 
you for many days ; but on that I must scribble a 
few words. What a theme ! A Saviour's unchang- 
ing love ! I have been thinking very much of the 
Levitical offerings lately, and especially of this — 
that the ground of comfort and true satisfaction to 
the conscience was to see the blood on the mercy- 
seat, i.e., to see the evidence that God was satisfied 
with the atonement made. That is the point. It 
seems to me so comforting to feel, that, if we have 
equal evidence that Jesus, our atonement, is accepted 
for us, that's enough ; we need have no doubt as to 
our own acceptance. I have not been able at all 
lately to think realizingly of God ; and it has 
troubled me a good deal ; but, through His mercy, 
I have not one doubt of His willingness to accept 
me, even in spite of my wretched guiltiness and 
unbelief." 

"I hope you pray for me," she adds. "I don't 
mind owning to you, if you will keep it strictly private, 
that I have not been outwardly so comfortable since 
I came here. I have a thousand little daily annoy- 
ances, and no one to tell them to. But I know, if 
God saw them not necessary, He would remove them ; 
so they must be right. How sweet to know God 
reigns and orders all our da'ly lot ! May He abun- 
dantly bless all your labours in His service ! Sowing 
in tears now, you shall reap a joyful harvest hereafter, 
ana perhaps be rewarded, for a long and toilsome 



A COMFORTING THOUGHT. 89 

carrying of the seed-basket, with many sheaves. God 
grant it to you and to rne !" 

The seed-basket she was ever carrying. "The text 
I shall sand yon," she writes, "is — 'He satisfieth 
the longing soul, and fllleth the hungry soul with 
goodness.' It is so sweet to think, that, as Jesus 
is satisfied in seeing of the travail of His soul in us, 
so we shall be satisfied in Him. All fulness dwells 
in Him — enough to fill us with goodness. Don't 
you find, more and more, that the things which oc- 
cupy the minds and hearts of others lose their 
interest with you ? There is a craving of the im- 
mortal soul for higher objects ; nor can it be satisfied 
with anything short of God for its portion. How 
He comes to be more and more the Alpha and Omega 
■ — the All and in all ! And how communion with 
Him, when we can realize and enjoy it, seems to bring 
us into the very holiest — the presence-chamber of 
Jesus !" 

And again, to another : " We are hasting to l that 
day.' Oh ! what a very comforting thought ! Cer- 
tainly I do more and more realize its nearness. I 
often feel now quite a wish to see it, and to work 
whilst there is room for bringing in the many sons 
whom B*3 died to bring to glory. I can pray for 
them when I cannot go and talk to them ; and I can 
ask God to make you and others talk effectually ; 
and so I think I may be a sharer of your joy in the 
day of Christ. I so earnestly covet the honour of 
turning many to righteousness, in order to shine 
like a star. It is not, however, for selfish ambition 



90 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

that I seek higher glory, but to reflect more of 
Christ's glory, which glorifies Him." 

And, in another letter : t; I have been looking out 
lately all the texts which connect the sufferings of 
Christ and His glory. I thought Heb. ii. 9, 10; 1 
Pet. i. 11; Heb. xii. 2; and Rev. v. 6 — 14, pecu- 
liarly beautiful. The Lamb, as it had been slain, in 
the midst of the throne ! And no less than seven 
times in Rev. xxi. and xxii. 1 — 5, is 'the Lamb' 
mentioned in the description of the heavenly city — 
as if we should remember it as much then as now, 
and should still ' glory in the cross of Jesus Christ,' 
even in heaven !" 

" Love," it has been said, " is the king of words, 
carved on Jehovah's heart." The same word is carved 
by the Lord on the heart of each of His children. 
" I have been greatly struck," writes dear Adelaide, 
"with the pre-eminenence which is always given 
to love among the Christian graces. c Above all 
things, put on charity.' And, in 1 Cor. xii. 31, it 
seems as if charity, in the next chapter, were the 
fruit of the Spirit in vrhich, above all others, God 
is glorified. And the first epistle of John also 
leads to the same conclusion in my mind : for there 
it seems to be the very essence of God's nature, and 
to reflect most of it in us. Love and light, hatred 
and darkness, stand in such strong contrast ; and, 
evidently, where they are spoken of in reference 
to fellow-creatures, it is only to show how much it 
must be so betwixt us and God. The communion 
and fellowship in that epistle are so sweet to think 



BEING SAFE IN THE ARK. 91 

of because it is through this fellowship that the 
likeness to Him is realized. The more we see of 
Him now in communion by faith, the more we re- 
flect His image ; just as, when we see Him face to 
face, we shall be like Him perfectly then — now, only 
in part." 

And writing, Jan. 29 (1848), to a schoolfellow, on 
her marriage, she says : " May you but be united 
in the bonds of Christian love, and I have no fear of 
excess or of danger of diminution. For, in its very 
nature, it is everlasting ; and, as one of the fruits of 
the Spirit, it will grow and increase Gontinually. 

Poor M , on her becoming Mrs. , once wrote 

to me so very strongly about the blessing of having 
at least one earthly triend to whom she could con- 
fide everything; and when I reminded her of the pos- 
sibility of losing that one earthly friend, and the 
blank which would then be felt — poor girl ! she could 
not bear it. How different it is to have our Ivlaker 
for our Husband ! But I trust you have. Then, if 
you marry l in the Lord,' you do well." 

The trials of each new day quickened her steps 
heavenward. After mentioning that a friend had been 
" praying with her most beautifully about our bearing 
the image of the heavenly as we had borne that of 
the earthly," she says : ' ; Oh ! if we could but real- 
ize what that will really be ! and to think that it is 
nigh, even at the door ! Oh ! that all knew the 
preciousness of being safe ' in the ark,' ere the floods 
of Divine wrath are poured out and the windows of 
heaven are opened ! What a weighty figure that is 



92 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

of the Lord's awakening, as if from a dream, to take 
vengeance on the ungodly ! (Ps. lxxii.) And how 
very precious the contrast is, that if all this time 
He is sleeping, as it were towards the wicked, c His 
eyes are open to the righteous' — He ' never slumbers 
nor sleeps' towards us ! Oh ! how little those whose 
eyes the Lord has not yet opened know of these 
wondrous and life-giving truths ! and how we may 
praise Him for so teaching us — adoring His free, 
sovereign love !" 

Her thoughts were occupied at this time with a 
subject which often afterwards engaged them. "Have 
you ever thought much," she writes, on January 24, 
" about self-examination ? Systematic arrangement 
of questions, or diligent looking into one's own 
heart, is what I can see no Scripture-warrant for — 
I mean examining as to our growth in grace. 2 Cor. 
xiii. 5 and 1 Cor. xi. 28 are the only two direct 
passages I can find in the New Testament ; and in 
both it is an examination as to being a Christian or 
not, and not as to growth in grace. There are many 
indirect passages, such as 2 Cor. vii. 11 ; 2 John, 8 ; 
Gal, vi. 4 ; Eev. ii. 5 ; and Heb. xii. 15, which imply 
a kind of self-examination ; but I believe these refer 
rather to cases of backsliders (so in Lam. iii. 40) 
than to careful search as to how far one is growing 
in grace. Out of all this arises the query, whether 
self-examination, as generally enforced, does not rather 
lead to a looking into one's self which is not enforced 
in Scripture '?" 

Another object than her own dark heart attracted 



THE LAMB OF GOD. 93 

towards it her steady gaze. " 'Behold Me,' " we find 
her writing, " ' Behold Me.' Of all occupations, none 
can be so blessed, so transforming, so strengthening, 
so enrapturing as that of beholding Jesus. O ! to be 
ever hearing and ever yielding to the sweet whispers 
of His Spirit, speaking through the Word, and say- 
ing, ' Behold Me ! Behold Me !' Here, indeed, is the 
object of faith — a living, personal, ever-present Me. 
This is not truth merely, it is Christ — His own Self." 

" God the Father, ,, she continues, u summons us to 
this act of beholding Jesus — ' Behold my Servant, 
whom I uphold ; mine Elect, in whom my soul 
delighteth.' And Jesus calls us to linger over the 
wondrous scene of Gethsemane, of Calvary — ' Tarry 
ye here and watch.' Hear even Pilate say to you, 
' Behold the Man !' And hear the voice of His mes- 
senger, who, ' seeing Jesus' for himself, said to those 
around, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world.' " 

And she adds : ki Grow not weary of this act ; look 
to-day, and be found looking to-morrow. 'Again, 
the next day after John stood; -and looking upon 
Jesus as He walked, he saith, ' Behold the Lamb of 
God !' Does not this tell us that it should be a 
daily act } and that, while we look upon Jesus, we 
should sav to others (as if re-echoing His own em- 
phatic words), ' Behold Him, Behold Him ?' Behold 
Him when you are in trouble ; ' so shall ye be 
delivered.' i Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord ; 
for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.' Behold 
Him when you are beset with fear r ' They looked 



94 MEMOIR OF A . L . KEWTON. 

unto Him, and were lightened' (lit., their counte- 
nances were made bright). On ' that day,' i thine 
eyes shall see the King in His beauty :' c when He 
shall appear, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see 
Hini as He is.' These eyes shall see Him on that 
day — the God that died for me." 

With the returning spring her feeble frame ga- 
thered new strength. " I am altogether now very 
much better," she writes on March 9. a For your 
sakes, and for some friends' sakes, and for my own 
(perhaps), I could wish it. May my wishes only be 
in accordance with His will concerning me ! I have 
gone through a great deal of spiritual conflict ; but, 
on the whole, I never knew so well what it was to 
be stayed upon the Rock of ages. I should like to 
send you an expression I was exceedingly struck with 
lately in the Prayer-book version of the 73d Psalm 
— 'It is good for me to hold me fast by God.' I am 
certain that the further we get on, the more we are 
made to feel that He must be everything to us. 
Have you ever felt the comfort of the words, ' Thou 
art my hiding-place'?' I can give you no idea what 
they have been to me — to hide in Jesus, and let 
God's eye rest only on Him !" 

And ao*ain : " It seems so lono* since I heard of 
you ; but time rolls so very, very rapidly down the 
stream, that much intercourse by the way seems 
impracticable. for ceaseless communion in heaven! 
I hope you are getting on. I have had such very 
real and solemn thoughts at nio;ht — the sense of 
every thought of my heart being as truly laid bare 



THE PRUNING-KNIFE. 95 

before God as if I were standing before Him in the 
judgment ! And then to know that Jesus is in 
heaven to answer for me, and that only this veil of 
flesh bides Him from my eyes ! how wonderful 
it is!" And a few days later : " We ought indeed 
to be thankful — full of praise ; for He is crowning 
us with the richest of all blessings, ' the lio-ht of His 
countenance.' May w 7 e be led to praise Him more 
and more, and to go on our way rejoicing ! not 
always expecting happy feelings in ourselves, but 
always remembering that Jesus is the same, yester- 
day, and to-day, and for ever." 

Other lessons she was learning as she sat at the 
Master's feet. "It struck me," she writes, "when 1 
read your note about coming here, and giving up 
your work at home, how often we are made to feel 
that it is just the fruit-bearing branches which He 
purges and primes. As soon as the fruit appears, 
He uses His pruning-knife — perhaps to cut off the 
opportunities we have enjoyed, and when we are 
beginning to see that it has not been in vain — lest 
we should begin to work by sense and sight, and not 
simply by faith. I have thought so much of this 
lately — what a mystery the life of faith is. That 
passage, Heb. xii. 2, l The Author and Finisher of 
faith' — not of ■ our faith,' because it has reference 
mainly to His own life on earth, as a perfect life of 
faith from first to last, and applies only in its second- 
ary meaning to us — it has been a great comfort to 
me, as it may be to you." 

And, on March 30 : "I should exceedingly like 



96 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to know all about you and dear M ; above all 

how you are getting on in the Sion-ward way; for 
how little, comparatively, everything else signifies ! 
I cannot tell you how often I thank God for placing 
mo in circumstances where I may, and almost must, 
spend my time in such pursuits — learning to know 
Him better. For months before I left home (two 
years ago nearly, now), this had been my constant 
prayer; but how little I thought how God would 
answer it ! But unerring wisdom brought it to j>ass 
in the way in which He knew He would be most 
glorified. I believe it is one of our most difficult 
lessons, to live by faith and not by sight, trusting to 
His ordering of things, when they seem so against 
us, still to be the best. The life Jesus led upon earth 
teaches this best of all, I believe, if we only under- 
stood it ; but how little we know of such separation 
from the world ! You will like to praise Him for 
and with me," she adds, "in one instance that has 
just come to my knowledge of a young lady, to 
whom a lady here gave one of my l Thoughts for 
Sleepless Hours,' and to whom it was made the 
instrument of conversion. She has since entered on 
that day that knows no night." 

A fortnight later, writing to one of her sisters, of 
whom she "had seen ^ery, veiy little lately," she 
says: "I suppose it is to make us both remember 
that we are not to be seeking our enjoyment here, 
but only to try to live for God, and to use whatever 
intercourse He allows us for helping each other on 
to glory. How soon we shall know that nothing 



A PRIVILEGED SPOT. 97 

else matters ! that whatever is earthly in our love, 
or in our duties, or services, or our friendships, or in 
anything will take away from, instead of adding to 

our eternal happiness ! ! X , what earthly 

creatures we are ! I actually feel as if I regretted 
that there can be nothing earthly in heaven. May 
God forgive me, and give me holier thoughts and 
feelings ! How horrid of me to be writing all this 
to you — dwelling on self and its vileness, when we 
might have our eyes all engrossed with the loveliness 
of Jesus ! but we shall only think of that in heaven. 
All the tears which now fill our eyes, in thinking of 
these things, shall then be for ever wiped away. So 
we will comfort one another with these words." 

In the beginning of May (1848), she once more 
left Torquay " the progress of her disease decidedly 
retarded," though without " any very material alte- 
ration in her state." "It is indeed," she writes, "a 
sweet and privileged spot, and endeared to me be- 
vond anv other on earth. God seems to have brought 
me to lie down here in such green pastures as I 
hardly thought could be known on earth ; for I think 
bodily suffering, however severe, is scarcely to be 
compared to mental suffering — and yet I ought not 
to shrink from either. How comforting it is to re- 
member that, Mn a little while,' we shall see Him ! I 
am sure I ought to own, to God's glory, that I have 
not felt half so rebellious about things I don't like, 
as I used to do. Sometimes I can wish to be ' ready 
to do ichatsoever my Lord the King shall appoint' (2 
Sam. xv. 15) ; and yet I have been learning, too, 
9 



93 MEMOIR ZF A. L. NEWTON. 

how very hard it is to { kick against the pricks/ 
when if, pleases God, according to His promise in 

Hos. ii. 6, to i hedge up my way with thorns.' As 

for dear , I sometimes think her letters betray a 

ripening process so rapid as to make me wonder it 
she is to be early called to her eternal home ; but it 
may be only to prepare her for more active service 
here. I think God has more to do in me yet, and 
may, perhaps, allow me more sowing-time, so that I 
may reap a richer harvest hereafter. How sweet it 
is to trust Him to do the best, whichever it is ! I 
certainly am stronger, and only want a more thank- 
ful spirit. Positively it seems as if I had nothing 
but Satan's snares and sinful self to mar my happi- 
ness. And you have not much more ; only the world 
— but what an ' only !' " 

And, writing to another friend before leaving, she 
says, in allusion to her physician's opinion, that, " by 
God's blessing, her bodily suffering might be greatly 
alleviated and her life prolonged :" — " I feel as if to 
go Home, and to be for ever freed from sin, would 
be such an unspeakable mercy. But I know that 
nothing can prolong life beyond God's appointed 
time, and that He will not suffer me to die until He 
has made me meet for glory. And now it seems as 
if, more than ever, I were bound to devote whatever 
is left of my life, be it weeks, or months, or years, 
to His service only. I am so anxious to ask you to 
pray that I may be taught how I may best employ 
my time here, both for my own growth in grace and 
for the good of my fellow -creatures. I have felt very 



SYMPATHY Of CHRIST. 99 

much for you in losing ; but one thought has 

so struck me, which may perhaps occupy your 
thoughts, too, in a happy way. It is the delight 
which Jesus, in His humanity, must feel, as He gets 
back one and another to be with Him. Should we not 
sympathize in this His joy, while He sympathizes in 
our sorrow ?" 



CHAPTER VIIL 

In her Diary, she writes: "May 6 (1848). — Left 
Torquay, and reached Bath at three p.m. May 9. — 
Dr. M'Neile talked to me at breakfast on Cant. vi. 12, 
and on the holy, rapturous delight we ought to enjoy. 
He expounded 2 Thess. i., and Ps. vii., especially 
with regard to calumny. May 15. — Left Clifton at 
one, and reached Leylands at half-past eight ; truly 
1 upheld ;' crowned with lovingkindness and tender 
mercies." 

Elsewhere, in the Diary, she says : " \ The Lord 
is in His holy temple.' c Ye are the temple of the 
living God.' Lord, dwell in me, and ' rest in thy 
love' towards me ! Hear the voice of the breathing 
—the cry of thy hidden ones. (Rom. viii. 26, 27.)" 

And again : " Dear called, but only had time 

to allude to the communion which is to be perfected 
in heaven, and of which the foretastes here had 
made some of the happiest days on earth." And 

another day : " At half-past five, M B was 

sent for, to be conveyed in the chariots of angels to 
the heavenly banqueting-house, to go no more out" 
And on April 3 : " This day I finished Canticles ; 
how often I have wondered whether I should live to 
do so." 



HEART-DEEP. 101 

And on the day following: " This morning I awoke 
betwixt three and four, with such a sense of extreme 
difficulty in breathing, that I really thought I was 
dying. I believe I never felt this in my life before. 
I was obliged to get up, but found relief in a fit 
of coughing. I did not wish to die at that mo- 
ment, but even prayed to be spared yet a little longer ! 
That very near feeling of death was very painful 
to flesh and blood. The Lord give me the victory 
over it when He calls me to pass through the shadow 
of it !" 

And on July 9 : " My precious and beloved 

Harriet B ruptured a blood-vessel at nine p.m., 

and her spirit fled to Jesus ! Blessed sovereignty of 
our unchanging God, who does what He wills with 
His own ! The last time we ever met on an earthly 
Sabbath in God's earthly courts was on Easter 
Sunday, when we both went to meet at His table to 
commemorate the resurrection of Christ the Head ! 
"When we next meet, will it not be in our eternal 
Sabbath, in our heavenly Fathers house above, to 
join in the marriage-supper of the Lamb, at the re- 
surrection of the members ? Thrice blessed fellow- 
ship in Jesus !" 

The summer of 1848 was spent at Leylands. 

Herbert counsels him who would bear worthily 
God's message, to " dip and season all his words and 
sentences in his heart before they come into his 
mouth, truly affecting and cordially expressing all that 
'he says, so that the auditors may plainly perceive 
that every word is heart-deep." For some time back, 
9* 



102 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

dear Adelaide had been engaged in a study which 
very peculiarly needed such a method. "In 1847," 
writes her sister, " she had be^un her notes on the 
Song of Solomon, looking into the Bible for illustra- 
tive and parallel texts, whenever her suffering in the 
head would allow her ; and thus had commenced a 
MS. which afterwards expanded into ' The Song of 
Solomon, compared with other parts of Scripture.' " 
And, on May 25 (1848), she herself writes: "I am 
now re-writing my texts on Canticles, and fresh beau- 
ties open to me in every verse. And yet how in- 
tensely little the most deeply experienced Christian 
knows of the fulness of the Word of God — the liv- 
ing: "Word in the written Word ?" 

And on July 4, she writes : " I am now in chap, 
vi. Ask for quickening grace, for ' the wind to 
blow upon my soul, that its spices may flow out,' 
and for more of the mind of Jesus. I was thinking 
yesterday how little we know of sympathy with Him 
— how ltttle we are sharers of His joy, His peace, 
His sorrows, His expectations — ' from henceforth ex- 
pecting.' " 

And to another, on July 10: "His ' Xotes on 
Judges' open up exactly the same truth which I 
have been dwelling upon in Canticles — that repeated 
declensions cause greater and more lengthened sea- 
sons of distance from the Lord, and He does not so 
immediately give the renewed sense of His presence. 
Many, many times lately, when I have been tempted 
to the recommission of the very same sin, with the 
full conviction that I should have to go and ask for- 



THE PRECIOUS BIBLE. 103 

giveness as soon as I had committed it, I have pain- 
fully felt — exactly what Mr. B. says, that it is a 
verv serious thing to be drawing on God's forgive 
ness." 

It was thus she was dipping day by day the Word 
" heart-deep." " Whilst any book," says her sister, 
" particularly if it were original and deep in thought, 
which threw light upon the one Booh, she would 
listen to or eagerly read for herself, her precious 
Bible grew in preciousness — type, prophecy, his- 
tory, parable, alike fed her, and, in feeding, ' satis- 
fied' her. Often when I came in from a walk, she 
would, with the brightest look and smile, say how she 
had been ' revelling' in such a passage, or in such a 
sentence !" 

u O Book !" her whole remaining pilgrimage 
seamed to say — 

" Book ! infinite sweetness ! let my heart 
Suck ev'ry letter, and a honey gain, 
Precious for any grief in any part, 
To clear the breast, to mollify all pain. 

" Thou art all health ; health thriving till it make 
A full eternity. Thou art a mass 
Of strange delights, where we may wish and take. 

"Heav'n lies fiat in thee, 
Subject to every mounter's bended knee. 

u Oh, that I knew hovr all thy lights combine, 

And the configurations of their glory ! 

Seeing not only how each verse doth shine, 

But all the constellations of the story I 



104 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

u Such are thy secrets ; which my life makes good, 
And comments on thee. 

" Stars are poor Looks, and oftentimes do miss : 
This book of stars lights to eternal bliss." 

In July an arrest was laid upon her pen. " One 
rather unfavorable symptom," she says, " has ap- 
peared lately, which makes the doctor urge all rest 
from mental effort that I can make." And to an- 
other : " I never felt so completely compelled to 
bow before the sovereign will of God as at this 
moment, I think. You would hardly believe how 
fierce the conflict sometimes is, between longing to be 
spared for active wort in the vineyard, and thirst- 
ing for that nearer, closer, and more uninterrupted 
communion with Him we love, which heaven only 
can afford !" 

And, writing to one of her sisters, she says : " I 
have often been thinking of you all, and wishing you 
much of that presence of the Lord which makes the 
hearts of His disciples ' burn within them while they 
talk together by the way.' And how truly are we 
on the way, 'journeying to the land of which, the 
Lord hath said that He will give it to us,' pitching 
our tents nearer and still nearer the heavenly city ! 
I am so fond of that contrast : ' tents' now ! but ' a 
city w T hich hath foundations' then — ' eternal in the 
heavens !' These are the thoughts with which we 
must * comfort one another ;' and our ' hope maketh 
not ashamed.' " 

And to another, a few days later : " Precious — 



THE MUDDY STREAM. 105 

rery, very precious — is the sovereignty of our God ! 
Don't you think it is a truth one learns to prize more 
and more each step of the way 1 It used to strike 
me so much, when I first went to Torquay, in Mr. 
Fayle's sermons — how very much he dwelt upon it ; 
and now I see why I was to hear it just then. But 
it is a pity," she adds, " to speak of one's-self to any 
who love better to hear of Jesus. Writing of Him 
is like talking of Him to others ; it quickens our 
own souls, as we learn from the Bride in Cant. v. 
And though we may have Him in own our hearts, 
and speak of Him there, still it is a pity to drink 
from a muddy stream when the Fountain is nigh. 
Have you seen much of Him in the Word lately ? 
I know it is God's wisdom which so places me, that 
I should have to go direct to Him. And how able 
and willing He is to give me all I ask ! ' Open thy 
mouth wide and / will fill it.' I should like your 
letter, when you write, full of your late ' gleanings 9 
from the fields of our ' Boaz.' " 

Love to the brethren was, with dear Adelaide, not 
a dogma of creed, but an instinct — a passion. " It 
would, indeed," she writes, " have been a delightful 
refreshment to have some commuuion on earth with 
one who seems to live so near to his God and our 
God ; but the Lord saw it not good at that time." 
And to another : " I often wonder at God's good- 
ness to me, in letting me have so many of His friends 
as my friends on earth — some who seem to live so 
near to Him that I think they must be peculiarly 
dear to Him, if that is possible. And there does 



106 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

seem to be such a difference betwixt those who are 
' scarcely saved' and those to whom ' an abundant 
entrance' is given — those who have lived for many 
years in fellowship with Jesus here, and those who 
have but given themselves to Him at the eleventh 
hour." 

God in everything — in the little things of life, not 
less than in the great ! and my God ! my Father ! 
what a secret of calm rest ! 

"Teach me, my God and King, 
In all things Thee to see ; 
And what I do in anything, 
To do it as for Thee. 

" This is the famous stone 
That turneth all to gold; 
For that which God doth touch and own 
Cannot for less be told." 

Dear Adelaide was daily learning more of this 
heavenly alchemy. " May it go forth and prosper," 
is her counsel to a friend, regarding a "Work with 
which her correspondent was occupied, "and God's 
blessing go before you in it ! 'All Thy works praise 
Thee.' May He give you to see His hand in every 
single fibre and leaf you arrange and classify ! and 
then you will be learning heavenly lessons in earthly 
things. If I might venture to say so to you, I should 
very strongly advise you not to take one step in the 
publishing of that work without prayer. Pray for 
God's blessing to go with every letter you write 
about it, and, in short, with all that concerns it and 



WORKING FOE GOd's GLORY. 107 

you and your friends. l Whatsoever ye do — whether 
ye eat or drink (or arrange seaweeds, might it not be 
said ?) — do all to the glory of God.' Do, if you can, 
make that a higher aim and object even than your 
own benefit. Forgive me for saying so ; it is because 
I have found such precious enjoyment in turning my 
ordinary employments to spiritual good in that way, 
that I mention it to you. It is not irreverent to 
pray to God about such things : there is not an act of 
our lives He does not see, nay, that He did not fore- 
see from eternity ; and He would have us like chil- 
dren, speaking of everything which interests them to 
their father." 

And she adds : " Whilst writing these thoughts, 
B. came to the window with some lovely ' forget-me- 
nots,' saying, ' They may forget, yet will I not forget 
thee.' Was not that exactly carrying out what I 

was saying ? Oh ! dearest M , let us earnestly 

seek closer hourly communion with God in Christ. 
It carries one calmly through bodily and mental suf- 
fering ; and this glorifies God." 

And to another : " I am indeed delighted that you 
are so fond of tracing His hand in the little daily 
events of life. I find it makes the most disagreeable 
things, and people, a cross to be borne after Jesus, 
and so— a privilege " 

To " wait" and to " work," are equally " living 
sacrifices," when offered up in faith and in hope. "I 
cannot say how very unsatisfactory my life seems at 
times," she writes, " nor how difficult it is to believe 
that I am just in the very best position ; but I sup- 



108 MEMOIR OF A. L. N£WTON. 

pose we shall understand it all very soon. Talking 
is such a trouble to rne ; but it is foolish to write 
about it. How very little it matters ! I am often 
obliged to say to myself, 

" ' Tarry thou the Lord's leisure,' 

whilst at the same time I dread sinking into luke- 
warmness. Oh ! how difficult it is to let our 
'moderation' be known ! I never satisfy myself 
about anything until I can desire to lie like clay in 
the hands of the potter, that He may make me what 
He pleases, both in bodily and in spiritual things." 

Reverting to the subject of self-examination, she 
writes, on August 7 (1848): "I am learning one 
lesson at least just now — to see more of my own 
vileness. It is a lesson I would shrink from learning 
through examination of my own heart to know its 
secret evil : but I have asked that I might be taught 
what God saw it needful for me to know, and I 
desire to leave it to His way of teaching. I often 
fear I may lose by not searching it out for myself; 
and yet I believe that watchfulness at the time, and 
not retrospective self-examination, is the scriptural 
thing. Do you catch my meaning ? Did you ever 
get upon that subject with any of your deeply- 
taught friends ? It is as interesting and important 
to my mind as ever ; and so is ' crucifying the 
flesh.' " 

Her health, with the exception already named, 
continued, this summer and autumn, much the same. 
%{ I am a regular invalid still," she writes to an old 



AN ABIDING PEACE. 109 

schoolfellow, on Aug. 31, " always lying on the 
sofa — better in the summer, worse in the winter, 
and obliged to spend half the year at Torquay. 
Still I am able now to employ myself quietly in my 
own room, without any of the intense suffering I 

have had. Dear E — , don't you feel more and 

more every day how very little temporal, temporary 
things have to do with our real, lasting, eternal 
happiness ? I hope you are very happy, not only in 
the full erjoyment of earthly blessings, but in the 
possession of that calm, sure, and abiding peace, 
which the world giveth not, for Jesus calls it ' my 
peace.' Most truly can I affirm, that nothing short 
of it could ever have carried me through the long 
illness I have had, and the intense suffering of the 
two last winters. I believe you never knew dearest 

H B : she, too, spent the two last winters 

at Torquay ; but she is gone Home, and has left me 
behind." ; 

And to the same friend, on Sept. 11 : "I have not 

heard from A for many months : perhaps I wrote 

more faithfully than she quite liked about her mar- 
riage ; for I could not help trembling for her at the 
prospect of uniting herself to one whom she could 
only say she hoped was ' well-disposed !' and I loved 
her too well not to tell her the truth. I know it is 
impossible for those who have never felt it, to enter 
into the feelings of those who have looked upon life 
from the borders of the grave ; it gives a reality and 
a comparative value to each, which must be learned 
experimentally to be mderstood. Hotv differently we 
10 



110 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

shall feel when we look back, from another state of 
existence, upon a life frittered away in vanity, instead 
of being spent in sowing seed for eternity, -I cannot 
form any idea — the thought is so perfectly overwhelm- 
ing to me." 

And to another, on Sept. 28 : "I have had a beau- 
tiful letter from L this morning. She seems to 

be growing very fast in likeness to Jesus, quite mak- 
ing that her first business in life. Oh ! is it not 
strange that the things which literally l perish in the 
using,' should occupy us more than durable, eternal 
realities? I will send to both of you Prov. viii. 18, 
as beautifully expressing what you come into when 
you go out of the world and are separate from it, 
and are received by the Father. There, in Jesus, 
you are heirs to unsearchable riches. May you both 
find the weight of this scale increasing, as you more 
and more lighten the other ! You will not regret to 
see the world's side continually rising, if you have 
the deep, deep comforts which spring from the filling 
up of the other till it sinks you into eternity, ' filled 
with all the fulness of God.' Remember me at a 
throne of grace : you don't know how much grace 
I need to live with, ere I need dying grace. But it 
only wants asking for." 

" She rejoiced," says a friend who knew Adelaide 
well, "in every opportunity of studying the holy 
Scriptures, as one who had found great spoil. Hei 
face literally seemed to shine with serene delight as 
she elicited, step by step, the unsearchable riches of 
Christ." "I am longing," she herself writes, on 



LIFE ETERXAL, 111 

Sept. 29 (1848). u to hear from you again if you 
have any rich Bible-thoughts for me. Precious, pre- 
cious treasure ! 

" 'My never-failing treasury, filled 
With boundless stores of grace !' 

I really do think my Bible is enough for me, where- 
ever or whatever I am : and the wilderness loses its 
loneliness, while we lean on the arm of our Beloved. 
We can forget what a rough, thorny road we are 
walking: on, while our thoughts were engrossed in con- 
verse with One so all-engrossing as Jesus ! — Him in 
whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily ! 
Oh ! what very amazing thoughts for frail humanity 
to pen ! And yet we are ourselves the very mem* 
bers of that Body in whom this fulness dwells ! Oh ! 
to think and write such things with the deep, deep 
reverence which becomes the beggar raised from the 

dunghill r 

And, in the same letter, she adds : ; - 1 am very 
much interested in prophetical thoughts just now. 
If the Lord will, we may, perhaps, go into these 
depths of divinely revealed truth this winter. I do 
so covet to know all that I can know by faith, while 
yet in this earthly tabernacle. No wonder Time 
should fail, if Eternity cannot exhaust its treasures. 
1 This is life eternal, to know Thee !' " 

Tenderlv watching over one very dear to her, she 
writes : "As a birth-day text, I cannot choose a more 
comprehensive and glorious assurance for you than 
Phil. iv. 19 — f My God shall supply all your nesd ao- 



112 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

cording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesns. 
Not according even to my best wishes for you, for 
these are unworthy of Him, but ' according to His 
riches in glory !' Nothing seems to me to make the 
Christian so perfectly happy and contended — come 
what will — as the certain knowledge that God does 
it out of His riches of grace, and glory, and wisdom 
— yea, 'the depth of the riches both of His wis- 
dom and knowledge.' He has no need to act spa- 
ringly ; He cannot act ignorantly ; He delights to act 
freely, out of the riches of His glory. Oh ! dearest 

M , are not such thoughts enough to silence all 

the misgivings of our timid, anxious hearts ! Two 
very favourite birth-day texts of mine are — ' Our 
days on the earth are as a shadow,' ' but thy years 
are to all generations.' I am fond of contrast- 
ins: the littleness of our existence here with the 
eternity of the existence of our God. It makes us 
feel what it is to be safely anchored to the ; Rock 
of ages.' " 

In other letters of this period, she writes : " I have 
been so greatly enjoying those verses in Ps. lxv. which 
speak of His showers as ' dissolving' the earth (inarg.) 
— such a sweet emblem of the work of the Holv 
Spirit softening and dissolving our stony, parched, 
and barren souls." And again : " You have perhaps 
heard that the Lord has taken my beloved friend 

to Himself. 'Another lily gathered !' As my 

treasure accumulates in heaven, so may my heart and 
affections be more drawn thither !" And still again : 
" I suppose I said, I believe glory to be consequent 



THE LOVE OF THE SAVIOUR. 113 

upon suffering. I meant by this, merely the neces- 
sary connexion betwixt the two, which I had in my 
mind. And both come from our oneness iviih Christ. 
That is one of the most precious of all truths, is it 
not ? indeed, the foundation of everything that con- 
cerns Christians : ' no longer twain, but one flesh ;' 
4 members of His body, and of His flesh, and of His 
bones V " 

As the autumn advanced, we find her at work again. 
" I am in hopes," she writes, " of getting a Ragged 
school established in Derby. Will you try to pray 
about it for me ] It is a suitable male teacher we 
want, and faith to act on Mark xi. 24." Her efforts 
for this school only ended with her life ; and a re- 
markable blessing folio wed them. 

And other labours she resumed with new earnest- 
ness. "I must plead guilty to your charge of very 
long silence," she says, writing to a friend, on 
Oct. 8 (1848), "I was forbidden in July to write 
more than I could help ; but for some weeks lately I 
have been perfectly well able to write, only I have 
had a Torquay friend staying with me, whose life 
seems so uncertain that I tried to devote my whole 
time and strength to her. Till fourteen, she had 
never seen a Bible, and had known but little of it 
comparatively since till last winter ; and it has been 
my precious privilege to lead her to see and taste 
more of the depths and heights of the boundless, 
fathomless love of that Saviour so richly unfolded 

to us there. Ah, dear F , never, never shall we 

kr^ow it all. Eternity itself shall be ever employed 
10* 



114 MEMOIR OF A. L . NEWTON. 

in opening up th 3 stores of grace treasured up for us 
in Him." 

In the same letter she gives us a little cabinet- 
picture of her daily outward life. " I almost feel 
reluctant," she says, " to waste my moments in writ- 
ing, and yours in reading, about myself, when there 

are such themes before us ; but, as dear Dr. 

used to tell me, even my body is precious to Christ, 
for He has purchased it and made it His. So you 
shall hear what He has done for the ' earthly house 
of this tabernacle.' I am wonderfully better ; much 
stronger, and suffer but little pain. Still I am not 
strong enough to bear the carriage, or much exertion 
of any kind. I live very quietly, chiefly upstairs, 
and get out a little in the garden whenever the 
weather will let me. I am not sure yet whether I 
shall go back to Torquay. I am doubtful whether 
it will be necessary. How sweet it is to leave our- 
selves in the loving hands of Jesus, who will do what 
is best for us, even to the ordering of all the little 
daily crosses and hourly disappointments of life. To 
see each thing as His doing, makes it all sweet, in 
spite of the trial which it may be in itself. May He 

make your cup to run over, dearest F , with the 

* wine and milk' which He offers so freely for our 
use, filling you ' with all the fulness of God.' " 

Towards the end of October, it was decided to 
winter once more at Torquay. "The cold of the 
last few days and nights," she writes, on Oct. 18, 
" makes me thankful that I have not had my own 
way, which would have been to try and stay here. 



SELF-EXAMINATION. 115 

The more, however, / devised that scheme, the more 
plainly God seemed to open the way for our going ; 
and I feel a great secret pleasure in having my will 
crossed, and so in being led blindly by a way I know 
not." 

In the interval, she writes : " I believe those who 
are most purified will reflect the Refiner's image the 
most brightly. The finer and most exquisite features 
of the Christian character are brought out only in 
protracted purification by fire — don't you think so ? 
The soul is safe for eternity, if there have been but the 
believing look to Jesus ; but then the development 
of the graces of the Spirit have not had time for 
exercise. There must be trial, ere we can exercise 
1 patience,' and irritating circumstances to call forth 
4 long-suffering.' " 

And, reverting to a subject before noticed, she 
says : " Self-examination I have studied with no 
ordinary care for months. I think Christians are in 
great bondage concerning it. I hope you will for- 
give me for saying so. I am so sure that much of 
the gloomy doubtfulness of the Lord's people, as to 
whether they are His or not, arises from seeking 
evidences in themselves, instead of only looking to 
Him, which is itself the most convincing of all evi- 
dences, that I dread looking much to self for any 
cause. ' Walking in the light will surely best show 
us our darkness!" 

And, on the eve of setting out, she writes, on Oct. 
30 (1848), to one of her sisters, thus : " What I wish 
for you, above everything else, dearest H , is, 



116 MEMOIR OF A t L, NEWTON. 

that you may have your heart so full of thoughts of 
Jesus as to be able to say : 

" ' I journey through a desert, drear and wild, 

Yet is my heart with such sweet thoughts beguiled, 
Of Him on whom I lean, my Strength and Stay, 
I can forget the sorrows of the way V 

Why should we not ? There is no blank, no void 
which Jesus cannot fill. Does He not create those 
blanks in order to fill them \ We can only learn 
1 the fulness of Jesus' by being emptied of self. Mav 
He make this a fresh means of filling you with all 
the fulness of God ! a fresh creature-stream dried 
up, that ' the fulness of Him who filleth all in all,' 
may flow in ! Let us see God's designs in trying us : 

" ' The clouds we so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head!' 

4 The balancings of the clouds are His ! They come 
charged with rain, to refresh the dry and thirsty 
ground. Let us thank God and take courage, and 
go on our way rejoic/.ng !" 



CHAPTER IX. 

Her last winter at Torquay opened brightly-. " We 
are very nappy altogether, " she writes, on Nov. 13 
(1848). "May our joy be only 'in the Lord,' and 
not in our circumstances ! As to the future, I am 
now heartily desirous not to choose or wish for 
myself, either to live or die. To be content under 
all circumstances is the highest attainment of the 
Christian life, and is certainly the summit of hap- 
piness. It is a lesson which it seems to take a life 
to learn ; but Paul says he had learned it." 

Under the same roof with her, this winter, there 
resided a visitor who found in dear Adelaide " her 
first spiritual friend.*' " I think," says her sister, 
"she was only thirteen, though quite womanly in 
appearance and manner. She was charmed with 
Adelaide at first sight ; and the affection was mutual, 
for Adelaide warmly returned it, and had her with 
her as much as possible — the result being beyond the 

attachments of earth, for J learned to know and 

love the Saviour. T\ lienever I was out, J sat 

on a little stool by her sofa, drinking in words of 
eternal life. She went back to school in February, 
1849, loving Jesus as her Lord, and loving her new 



118 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

friend as the means of first opening her mind to see 
His beauty and to feel His preciousness. She now 
resides in India, and has since walked most consist- 
ently as a follower of Christ." 

Her health having on the whole improved, " Ade- 
laide was able," says her sister, " to see more of her 
friends and neighbours." And alluding to this, she 
herself writes, on Nov. 22 : "I am quite in the world 
again (to me) here now ; and I find it very trying 
and soul-hardening : but God is able to make all 
grace abound toward us, and I feel as if we should 
specially glorify Him by trusting Him to cany on 
His own work in us as mightily and effectually in 
the midst of every sort of hindrance as in the quiet 
of solitude. Are not vou too much inclined to put 
yourself out of the world in order to be wholly given 
to God, while Christ's prayer for us is — ' I pray not 
that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but 
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil V That 
is the nature of His intercession for us both, as much 
now as then, and especially so (don't you think \) 
when He sympathizingly feels how much we both 
need it." 

The Word became increasingly precious to her. 
" I have been so enjoying Ps. cxix. lately," she writes, 
on the same date : a it fully says all that I am sure 
you and I feel of delighting in God's Word so far 
above everything else. A dreadful conversation with 
poor R. W. on Monday evening made me go to bed, 
saying, 'Horror hath taken hold on me ;' for he 
actually owned to me that he dared not, and could 



HUNGER AFTER LOVE. 119 

cot, promise to read the Bible ! I believe he has 
really been to Oscott and joined the Papists ! Though 
lie does not quite own it, he can't deny it." 

And she adds : i: I had a very nice visit last week 

to Miss , a girl just my age, and ill in exactly 

the same way. She is full to overflowing of Christ 
— can think and talk of nothing else ; and her coun- 
tenance literally reflects His bright rays. She seems 
to have felt all I have about life and death, and now 
at last has learnt to be quite thankful to live, though 
joyfully waiting to be gone. She told me she had 
been thinking so much of her need of knowing 
Christ personally, in order to be able in Him to meet 
and contend with the personality or the personal 
agencv of the Devil. You will feel it too, I think." 

Terstegen once wrote : " Do not think so much 
upon denying yourselves, upon being faithful, or upon 
living holily and strictly ; but only seek to love — 
hunger after love— exercise yourselves in love. The 
love of Christ constrains the believer into suffering 
and through suffering." Alluding to a trial which 

o o o 

had come upon her, Adelaide writes, on Dec. 7 
(1848) : " I find a blessing to myself in this break- 
ing down of my natural will. It is a daily cross, 
and a burden ; but to take it and bear it after Jesus, 
not doing my own will, but my heavenly Father's, 
is sweet to me still. Don't you feel more and rnore, 
every day, that to be dying to everything here, and 
living to God, with a full sense of the bearing of each 
passing moment on eternity, is the grand end of 
life? To crucify our flesh with its affections and 



120 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OK. 

lusts — not, as the Romanists and others do, to feel 
that they have done a good deed, but because we 
find it opposed to the life of the Spirit of Christ in 
us, so opposite as it is to the patience, gentleness, 
love, meekness, which ought to be reflected in the 
followers of the meek and lowly Jesus ; this is the 
aim of all our discipline." 

" It is most beautiful," she adds, " to see this in 
some of the tried sufferers here — their cheerful en- 
durance of the most intense pain from day to day 
without a passing murmur, and their bright hope of 
glory — c an eternal weight of glory,' which (as one of 
them said to me the other day) makes the afflictions 
seem light. It is most encouraging to me to see how 
others are borne up above the billows by that sure 
anchor of the soul, which entereth within the vail, 
sustaining them ; and I won't shut myself out, for I 
* am sure it sustains me too, through every suffering of 
mind as well as body." 

A closer intimacy with God was her heart's daily 
longing. " A friend said to me the other clay," she 
writes, "that my chief object ought to be to seek to 
know God more and more ; and I hope I am learn- 
ing something more of Him. My Bible seems to 
do me good when nothing else does ; and it is so 
sweet to seek the teaching of God's Spirit, and then 
to get to understand a little of the meaning of one 
verse after another. I find the Bible so exceedingly 
full of comfort and beauty, as I get to think more 
about its meaning." 

Vinet speaks of that " eccentric philanthropy* 



HOME-CORK ESPONDEXCE. 121 

which " passes over the parent to give itself to 
country, and passes over country to attach itself to 
humanity ; but the Gospel," he adds, u far from de- 
spising the private affections, recommends them." 
Dear Adelaide loved her kindred, and anxiously 
laboured to help them forward in the way. "With 
two of her sisters at home, she maintained, this 
winter, a peculiarly touching fellowship ; and as it 
was her last season of absence, we select a few me- 
morials of it. 

To one of her sisters she writes : 



' Sunday aLorxtxg-, Torquay, 
Xov. 19, 1848. 



" My Precious N- 



" It shall be one of my sweet employments on this 
hallowed day to minister, as God shall enable me, to 
your necessities. c Iron sharpeneth iron,' as I have 
been thinking very often lately ; and so God shall use 
us as fellow-helpers and quickeners to each other, as 
we bend our steps, on each successive Sabbath, not 
indeed to the same l worldly sanctuary,' but to the 
same heavenly temple not made with hands — to pre- 
sent ourselves as living sacrifices on the altar of that 
temple, even Jesus, in whose whole burnt-offering of 
Himself we, as the members of His body, are offered 
likewise to the Father. 

" Dead and risen in Him ! for the same Spirit 

which baptizes us into His death, makes us equally, 

of necessity, partakers of His resurrection also. This 

Is the grand marvel to me, that we are now as truly 

11 



122 MEMOIR 01 A. L. NEWTON. 

risen as we are dead in Jesus, and our life is, as truly 
as His own, hid within the vail. And this makes it 
so essentially of necessity, that the Christian must 
live holily — i.e., in exact proportion as he realizes his 
resurrection-life. His conversation or citizenship is 
in heaven ; and his conflict and his warfare are con- 
sequently said to be c in high or heavenly pkces.' 
(Eph. vi. 12.) 

" I heartily thank God for giving you more of 
Himself, directly from Himself, in place of its coming 
through an ' earthen vessel,' which both limits the 
abounding flow of His fulness, and also gives an 
earthy taste to the liviug water. The smallest and 
most muddy stream of that water quenches more of 
the thirst of the soul than the greatest abundance of 
earthly good ; but it is a pity we are content with 
impure and limited draughts of what we might drink 
'freely' (Rev. xxii. 17) and 'abundantly' (Cant. v. 1) 
from c the wells of salvation,' ' the fountain of living 
waters ;' and I really account it a great mercy to be 
driven to this. 

" Go on from strength to strength, testifying of 
Jesus while He gives you time and strength to speak 
for Him ; and, in telling others about Him, you shalJ 
yourself find Him to be your Beloved and youi 
Friend, as in Cant. v. I praise Him heartily for M. 
W. Ask Him to make all you say to be the breath- 
ing of His Spirit through you, and it shall be life-giv- 
ing and quickening. He blesses you wonderfully ; 
above all, in the circulation of His own Word, which 
never returns void to Him who sends it. What an 



HOME-CORRESPONDENCE. 123 

amazing thought ! The Lord bless you abundantly 
in your own soul and in your work of faith and 
labour of love to others, till He takes you that He 
may be glorified in you for ever and ever ! So prays 
your sister in Him, 

" Adelaide L. jSTewton. 
u I have a very good hope of poor M. TV. ' Be 
not faithless, but believing.' l He willeth not the 
death of a sinner.' " 

And to another of them, she writes : 

"Shrttblaxds, Djc. 2, 1848. 
" My Dearest G , 

" I was so thankful to get your note the other day: 
I have been lonoino* to write a^ain. If anything; 
connected with myself could have been more truly 
refreshing to a sometimes weary, faint-hearted pilgrim 
than another, it was the tidings of God's having 
owned and accepted one of my tiny tracts. May I 
have grace to render Him the glory due unto His 
name, remembering that I am but the earthen vessel 
which contains what He puts in and sends forth 
through me of His own life-giving Spirit ! 

"I cannot tell you how thankful I am, too, for 
you. You may not be enjoying the happiest frames 
of mind, but you are indeed a vessel hung upon the 
nail in a sure place. You cling to Him even the 
more because you find rest nowhere else — not even 
in His work in you. You are like the Bride in 
Canticles, crying out, 'ISTone but Christ — none but 
Christ' The very threshold of His house is a delight 



124 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to your panting soul, and you love to tread His courts. 

Ah ! dearest G , these are sure, very sure pledges ; 

they are actual earnests and foretastes of a delight as 
far exceeding what you now feel as the heavenly 
sanctuary, the house not made with hands, shall ex- 
ceed the glory of His earthly courts. 

" This longing after Him sometimes seems to me 
even more blessed in reality (though less enjoyable 
at the time) than the enjoyment of Him. What do 
you think ? I have felt it so exceedingly strong at 
night lately, having had a long succession of very 
sleepless nights, an intense longing to know God, 
which nothing seems to satisfy. Believing ' that He 
is' does not seem half enough ; I want more, and yet 
I don't know what. I dare say it is longing after 
what I must die to know. And I don't feel as if this 
were wrong, though I more and more believe that 
wishing to die is wrong. It is a child fancying it 
knows better what would promote its happiness and 
welfare than its parent ! But we must learn our les- 
sons in God's way of them. We cannot teach one 
another, though He often uses us as the instruments 
of His teaching. 

" But I see every day that telling other people what 
I have learnt is useless, unless God is telling them 
what He means them to hear through me : so that, 
after all, secretly asking His blessing is the secret of 
everything. 

" I greatly enjoyed some hours at M— last Sat- 
urday. seemed fuller of heaven than ever. We 

both talked and seemed to feel we were here as pil- 



HOME-CORRESPONDENCE, 125 

grims. and enjoying a little intercourse by the way ; 
whilst it did really feel like way-side talk, and noth- 
ing more. God is teaching me to do without , 

even here : and I feel that it is to make me rest on 
' unseen' things and not seen. 

" I am glad you got occasional talks with . 

Her very disagreeableness to me by nature made our 
love to Jesus more manifestly the only tie that bound 
us together : it gave a reality to the friendship, which 
I liked. How mysterious the simplicity of faith is ! 
and how immense the privileges it opens to us ! 
Literallv everything that Christ is and has, because 
we are literally made to belong to Him — to be part 

of Him ! Dear G . what more can I say ! 

The thoughts are too vast, too immense, to be 
grasped by my poor finite mind. May the Spirit, 
in teaching the deep things of God, reveal them to 
us as we are able to bear it from day to day. So 
pravs vour fond 

"Addy." 

And again, on Dec. 28 : u TThat a word that is in 
Luke xii. 12, ; It is not you that speak, but the Holy 
Ghost P This is very sweet, indeed, in connexion 
with John hi. 34. 'For God giveth not the Spirit by 
measure.' So that everything depends on the in- 
dwelling, and on the measure of this indwelling, of 
the Holy Spirit in us. ' Be filled with the Spirit :' — 
is not that a nice Xew-year's-day text \ And with 
it. for our comfort in every feeling of coldness and 
deadness and lukewarmness — ' It is the Spirit that 
11* 



126 MEMOIR OF A. L, NEWTON, 

quickeneth.' He quickeneth us, and quickeneth 
others through us. May God abundantly bless all 

your seed sown, dearest X , and give you a 

harvest of many sheaves P 

And to the other sister, of same date : "I am 
sorely tried : you don't know what it costs me some- 
times. I am positively amazed at that power of God 
which carries me through it all. It calms me to that 
degree that I cannot be agitated, if I may use such 
an expression. Oh ! it is wonderful ! it is so real — 
so divine ! Let me send you Phil. iii. 7 — 14 ; it is 
what we feel, especially as we begin to come under 
the near influence of a ray of light from the heavenly 
city. Then, indeed, may all things else be counted 
as loss and as dung, as the beautiful lines of a hymn 
say — 

" ' All things, beside, which charm the sight, 
Are shadows tipt with glow-worm light.' 

B. sends those four words in Ex. iii. 7, c I know their 
sorrows.' I will add Phil. iv. 19, ' Even His riches in 
glory by Christ Jesus.' " 

A snare to which her peculiar habit of mind ex- 
posed her, was a tendency to occupy her thoughts 
unduly with the mysterious side of God's procedure. 
Her searching intellect was ever sounding depths 
which it is not given to man to fathom ; and the pain 
of failure was at times almost overwhelming. " To 
own the truth to you," she writes on Jan. 19 (1849), 
" I have been trying lately rather to lay aside all diffi- 
cult subjects in Scripture-study, from the conviction 



CHRIST, NOT SELF. 127 

that I was studying them intellectually rather than 
spiritually. Perhaps, it is a danger few are so much 
exposed to ; but, having so much time to spend men- 
tally, I am in great danger, I am sure, of falling into 
this snare. And though I feel that this may be given 
to me as a time for laying up knowledge which may 
hereafter be called into practical use, I still think and 
feel that ; knowledge puffeth up,' while ' charity' alone 
1 edifieth.' God has been very good to me in calling 
forth my energies in many practical ways lately, 
which, though less pleasant to my nature, I am sure 
has been necessary for me." 

" If a man is to find life,*' says Vinet again, " he 
must find it elsewhere than in a deceitful and sterile 
view of himself. A look, a simple look (I mean not 
an argument, a study, a toil) — a simple look con- 
verts." And the same look daily renewed, renews 
the heart's brave purpose. "If you will allow me 
for once to say what I think," she writes on Feb. 2 
(1849), to one who was "distressing herself about 
her hardness of heart," " you will find the greatest 
possible help in studying the character of Christ, 
not your own. Read the Gospels, to trace out — in 
every miracle, and word, and act, and touch, and in 
every step of the path He trod — what was His cha- 
racter, and how it developed itself ; and I think, with 
the Spirit's help, you will forget your walk in think- 
ing of His, and your emptiness in His fulness ; and 
thus, by beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
Lord, you will be changed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit I do 



128 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

think that Satan hinders Christians more by dis- 
couraging them with showing them their perpetual 
shortcomings and failures, and their sad want of con- 
formity to Jesus, with all its sad results, than in any 
other way ; and I cannot help feeling strongly that, 
in urging self-examination in the way so many good 
clergymen do, they really aid the mischief. I like 
what M'Cheyne said, i For every look at yourself, 
take ten looks at Christ ;' only I would double and 
treble it, and almost say, Never look at self at all." 

And the intense "looker" is the earnest worker. 
" Looking," says Vinet, u alone can give to action, 
not that feverish vivacity which our passions will 
always give in abundance, but that beauty which 
passion can never give." And Adelaide writes : " I 
believe that it is when we are most occupied with 
Christ that we are most useful to others, however 
unconscious we may be of it, and however conscious 
we may then be (as, of course, we shall be more than 
ever) of our unlikeness to Him. Did you ever notice 
this in Canticles ? It was when the Bride was 
pining after Christ and not realizing the happy sense 
of His presence (chap. v. 9), that, in telling what 
she was in search of, she regained her own happiness, 
and excited in others the desire to seek Him too. 
(Chap. v. 10-16; and vi. 1.) This is most encourag- 
ing to me." 

And she adds : " Oh ! I love to see how God is 
using you, dear L -, and how your ' faith is work- 
ing by love.' How unspeakably good He is to U3, to 
give us hearts willing to ' occupy' for Him while He 



THE TALENTS. 129 

is away ! "Will it not be delightful, when He comes 
again to have so traded with our ' talents,' that we 
can point to one and another who heard of Him 
through us, and cast our crowns (richly set with 
many jewels) before His feet, to whom we shall 
glory in yielding up all the glory we have gained ?" 
As the spring came on, her health again was 
shaken. " Yesterday," she writes, on Februaiy 2, 
(1849), "I really could do nothing, having been 
awake almost the whole night through, hearing every 
hour strike, except from two till four, and being quite 
done up. I am quite surprised my cough could 
have got so bad so soon. But enough of ' things 
seen and temporal,' ' passing away !' Oh ! for a 
mind to dwell only on eternal realities ! I so often 
think of that line, 

" ' The strong He '11 strongly try.' 

What a comfort, that He who tries us is He who 
knows our strength ! I was so pleased with a 

thought of 's the other day, that God sends His 

children many a storm to dash them on the Eock, 
that they may find out its firmness, security, and 
elevation." 

We may be occupied about God, and not be occu- 
pied with God. Watching against this peril, Ade- 
laide writes, on February 21 : "I am doing texts 
for — — , on the love of God ; but I am in such 
danger of doing it all intellectually, that I often feel 
afraid to go on. Do you ever feel it ? It seems so 
easy to like to be occupied with religious things, and 



130 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to follow out a train of thought on these wonderful 
subjects, and yet not to get nearer Jesus by it. ' A 
broken and a contrite heart, God, thou wilt not 
despise,' has been my text lately ; and my uppermost 
desire has been, to be able to feel like a child coming 
to its father, as in Gal. iv. 6, 7. Is it not amazing 
to have ' the Spirit of His Son' in our hearts ? Oh, 
how holy we ought to be, and how Christ-like in 
all things — the life which acts in us being God's own 
Spirit moving about these earthen vessels to do His 
work !" 

Payson once wrote to a friend thus * u A man now 
fills the throne of heaven. And who is this man ? 
Mark it well — it is a man who is not ashamed to call 
you l toother.' You may not now know what He is 
doing with you ; but you shall know hereafter — you 
shall see the reason of all the trials and temptations, 
the dark and comfortless hours, the long and tedious 
conflicts — and you will be convinced that not a sigh, 
not a tear, not a single uneasy thought, was allotted 
to you without a wise and gracious design." Payson 
had learned this lesson, not out of books or from the 
lips of men, but through the things which he him- 
self had suffered. And Adelaide Xewton was learn- 
ing the same lesson by the same personal discipline. 
" However my wishes and feelings," she says, " may 
vary with the fluctuations of bodily disease, my chief 
and highest desire is, that He should have His own 
way with me — prolonging life, or snapping it asun- 
der, or doing what shall most promote His glory, in 
whatever way He pleases, in His soverign wisdom 



PERFECT WORK OF GOD. 131 



and love. c Oh, for a deeper entrance,' dear M- 



1 into His heart of love !' as a very, very dear young 
friend, at this moment dangerously ill upstairs, said 
to me lately. God has been doing it all ; and, try- 
ing as I own I have felt it, I would not have one 
link in the chain broken." 

"It has been such a strong feeling with me lately/' 
she continues, " when thinking very much of the 
sorrows of others and wishing sometimes the removal 
of their trials, tbat we little think what we are doing 
when we begin to wish to have anything changed in 
any degree from what it is. How we should mar 
the perfect work and plans of God if we hindered 
one thing from happening at the precise time and 
in the particular way in which God hath purposed 
it! and how, as partakers of the mind of Christ 
through the indwelling of the Spirit, we should 
shrink from the very idea of a flaw in God's works ! 
Yet don't you think our rebellious feelings, when 
He crosses our inclinations, all tend to this in 
reality ?" 

And she adds : ' ; These few hints of what is pass- 
ing in my mind will tell you how to pray for me ; 
and that is what I care for above everything else. 
Desires of the heart, and inward groanings of the 
spirit, and weariness of sin, and pantings after holi- 
ness — are all open to the eye of Him who dwells in 
His upper sanctuary, but hears ' the groanings of 
the prisoner.' How full of comfort to know that 
muttered desires and groans are heard ! Plead my 
cause at the very highest of all courts, because you 



132 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

are one who has ' access to the holiest by the blood 
of Jesus.' Oh, may you have sweet communings 
with Him, when you take up my cause for Him to 
plead with His Father ! I hope you enjoy sweet 
fellowship with Him. We shall uninterruptedly 
hereafter." 

The " very dear young friend upstairs," alluded to 
above, was soon afterwards taken. " The death of 

dear B C last night," she writes, on March 

1 (1849), "has so pre-occupied my mind, that I 
scarcely feel able to turn it back to other thoughts 
again. A more perfectly peaceful 'falling asleep in 
Jesus' could hardly be ; and all the circumstances 
attending it have been so full of love, that even poor 

's first words were, l Bless the Lord, my soul ; 

and all that is within me, bless His holy name !' 

Dr. 's kindness, too, has been so great ; and his 

way of directing one's mind to look entirelv bevond 
all that which is painful to the realities of unseen 
things, has seemed altogether to make it (I might 
almost say) only a fresh instance of displaying to us 
what God is." 

And to another, two days later : " Instead of griev- 
ing over dear B 's death, I feel most deeply 

thankful to have witnessed it, and to have had such 
a proof of the reality of my religion. Oh, it is such 
a real thino- to be trusting in Christ, and to feel that 
we are alive in Him, not in our own bodies, which 

are mortal ! Dear , too, is so supported by the 

same reality ; it is falling back upon God, the living 
God — is it not ? But my thoughts are too large to 



CHRIST A FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 133 

express on paper, or even in words. I seem quite 
lost in such immensity." 

Henry Marty n, in a season of sore trial, wrote In 
liis diary this entry : " My dear Eedeemer is a foun- 
tain of life to my soul. With resignation and peace 
can I look forward to a life of labour and entire 
seclusion from earthly comforts, while Jesus thus 
stands near me, changing me into His own image." 
Adelaide Xewton was realizing, amidst her increas- 
ing trials, the joy of the same fellowship. " It is so 
strange," she writes to a friend, on March 8, "to 
contrast the scenes of gaiety and of sorrow this 
world is so full of: if you had all been at the con- 
cert, we were in the midst of death ! And yet, 

" 'Although the world may think it strange,' 

most truly could we have affirmed, 

" ' We would not with the world exchange.' 

I have so exceedingly enjoyed of late Gal. iv. 5-7. 
The thought of our having the Spirit of Jesus, as 
the Spirit of Life which actuates us, seems so won- 
derful ! I like so very much to think of the Spirit 
as the breath of Christ's body — that very body of 
which He is the Head and we are the members ! 

Tell how very thankful I am that he should be 

at work in the Lord's vineyard. He won't under- 
stand Solomon's Song, viii. 8, or I would add, 4 Those 
that keep the fruit must have two hundred.' You 

can take it, though, for yourself; and so can . 

How God is making you both ' grow up into Christ ! 
12 



134 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OX. 

And we can bless Him for the clouds which break 
in showers to water our thirsty souls." 

It is recorded of the martyr Pddley, that on earth 
he lived so near* heaven, that, when he died, he had 
not far to go. Dear Adelaide seemed in spirit to be 
drawing nearer and nearer her home. u Happy giri, 
to be gone before !" she writes, on March 12 (1849), 
alluding to the death of B , " younger than my- 
self by some months, and younger, I should think, 
too, in spiritual life, and yet more matured and more 
ripe for glory ! But I can use the language of the 
Great Forerunner, and say, ' Yet a little while,' and 
we shall see each other, because I, too, ' go to the 
Father.' Anything so intense as the lono-ings I have 
felt lately to see Him and be ' satisfied with His like- 
ness,' I have scarcely believed could be anything but 
the desire put into my heart for what God was 
intending to give." 

Christ's person was more and more realized by 
her as the centre of all her hopes and joys. u The 
object of Christianity," says Vinet, " is not an ab- 
stract truth. It is a fact, a person, Jesus Christ, 
Jesus Christ crucified. We believe not in Christian- 
ity, but in Jesus Christ. Every Christian act done 
in the world, is done, not by Christianity (which is 
itself only an effect), but by Jesus Christ. The rela- 
tions which we bear as Christians are not intellectual 
relations — relations between our mind and a truth, 
but relations between person and person — relations 
between us men and Jesus Christ, both man and 
God. The object of our faith is invisible, but not 



THE DEALINGS OF GOD. 135 

impersonal. He is not seen with the eye of flesh, 
but nevertheless He is seen. We do not converse 
with Him as with an idea — that is to say, in sub- 
stance with ourselves, but as with a Being who is 
with us even to the end of the world." Dear Ade- 
laide found this reality to be daily growing more real. 
"I don't know whether others feel it," she writes, 
"but it seems to me that we so little realize the 
Person of the Saviour. We think and talk of doc- 
trines, but they are not Christ. Oh, what a wonder- 
ful depth there is in those three words — ' Thou in 
me' — the Father embodied in the Son! And then, 
to add to this, the taking of us into union — into one- 
ness — with both ! Oh ! is it not amazing ?" 

And, writing, on March 15, to one who, like her- 
self, was sorely tried, she says : " How marvellous 
the dealings of God are ! How He brings us at 
times into the depths, that we may know by experi- 
ence that He is the high and lofty One ! ' The rock 

that is higher than I.' G said your thoughts 

were too high and too large for others to understand. 
It is quite remarkable how exactly I have been 
feeling the same thing lately ; but I have thought it 
has perhaps been in answer to the cry which has 
been so uppermost with me, ever since Christmas, for 
'a broken and a contrite spirit.' I cannot tell you 
how low I seem to have been brought ; but last 
night I was exceedingly comforted by Ps. lxxiii. 
21-23. The 'nevertheless' there seemed so very, 
very precious, in spite of all our ignorance ; and I 
vas so pleased to find the pricking at the heart so 



1S6 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

exactly expressed. How well God knew every 
thought and feeling which could ever oppress us, 
when He caused that precious Book of Inspiration 
to be written for our comfort ! Does not Ps. cxxxix. 
6 also express what you feel ? — and don't you like 
Matt. xi. 25, 'Revealed unto babes?' I am writing 
quite at random, not knowing whether such thoughts 
may at all fall in with yours ; but, at all events, we 
must have one meeting-place, and that is, the Person 
of our adorable Redeemer ! Oh, to be able to have 
our eye fixed on Him !" 

A month later, she writes to one of her sisters 
thus: 

-Torquay, April 19, 1849. 
" My Dearest X , 

" I am so glad to-day to be able to send you a 
line. I hope you have not thought me unkind, for 
I really have not felt able to write. I have been 
passing through very real trial lately, and very pain- 
ful — learning so keenly the bitterness of creature-dis- 
appointment ; and yet, if I will lean on idols, what 
else can I expect ? Rather, let me tell you what 1 
really do feel to be ground for thankfulness : that 
God has made me feel quite thankful to learn my 
folly and to be disappointed in the midst of what 
must, without His teaching and His restraining grace, 
have filled me with bitter complaing. I will tell you 
more about it (d.v.) when we meet. 

" These wilderness-lessons are sweet, amidst all 
their bitterness, when they show us that we are 
thereby made to come up out of the wilderness, 



BARREN AND WITHERED. 137 

leaning more and more exclusively on our Beloved. 
To our shame be it spoken, that we should slight His 
all-sufficiency by leaning at any time on any other 
arm. ! how we do dishonour Jesus! 

u I like c Tekel' very much, and bought two copies, 
How sweetly it shows us how ' bold we may stand in 
the great day' with Jesus on our side ! 

" I hope you have not been much bored with . 

I think it is so difficult to be unselfish in religion, 
and to be willing to speak and act for God in the way 
and with the people He chooses, and not ourselves. 
! may we be guided rightly in all we think, say, 
or do! 

"Make yourself quite happy about old ; it is 

our privilege to pray for him (Matt x. 42). I am 

sure I ought to feel this ; for says, in a letter I 

had lately from him, that he thanks me for sending 
such cups of water to his thirsty soul, in the tiny 
notes I have written him : so God, indeed, chooses 
weak and base things, that the excellency may all be 
His ! I think the time is very short. ! to be kept 
blameless till we see Him come ! 

"Yours in Him, A. L. K" 

And again, on having been at the Lord's table : 
" Only think of my having been down, this morning, 
to Trinity, for the early Sacrament (of course, with- 
out leave) ! I have really felt lately so 4 barren and 
withered' a branch of the Vine, that I resolved, if 
God threw no obstacles in my way to show me I was 
wrong, I would for once rush into His courts and 
12* 



188 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

get at least a glimpse of Jesus through the lattice- 
work of the ordinances ; and I hope I did, in spite of 
all the bodily feelings which sadly hindered the up 
ward flight of tbe Spirit after a risen Jesus, which I 
ardently longed for. O ! when shall we rise too ? 

" Both the last times I have shared this sacred 
feast, it was chiefly the connecting the outward signs 
of the bread and wine with the absolute reality of 
the things signified being now in glory, which oc 
cupied and comforted me : Jesus clothed in that very 
body and blood still. It leads one's thoughts to Him. 
My Good-Friday text struck me very much in the 
same way — c Who His own self bare our sins in His 
own body.' How strong the words are — are they 
not ? And then to think that we are the members 
which form that body (in another sense), adds another 
wonderful thought too." 

Another thought, suggested by the same occasion, 
she givos elsewhere : " This do in remembrance 
of me.' There is a volume of thought suggested 
by the extreme simplicity of these words — l Ee- 
member me.' c Behold my hands and my feet, 
that it is I myself; handle me and see,' were the 
words of Jesus while still on earth. Now, he says, 
4 Do this' (i.e.. eat the bread and drink the wine, 
which are the outward signs of the body and blood 
of Christ) ' in remembrance of me.' Don't forget my 
Body ; remember it still, all the while I am away, 
till I come again ! Where, then, is the body of 
Jesus now I Thither let the eye of faith be turned, 
whilst feeding on these outward remembrancers of 



LOVEST THOU ME. 139 

it. Think not only how Jesus has once died, but, 
c rather,' how He now lives ! It is Jesus ' as He is, 
that He bids us remember, to our great and endless 
comfort." 

Her sojourn in Torquay was now drawing to 
close. "I am glad," we find her writing, in refe- 
rence to her intended departure, " to solve every 
difficulty and bury every anxiety in the certain as- 
surance that I am best wherever God sends me. I 
mean to waste no more time over the body, further 

than simply to tell you that Dr. expressed 

thankfulness and surprise that my illness had made 
so little progress. I am often very thankful that it 
is such slow work in my case ; for I am certain I 
shall be, with God's blessing, an eternal gainer. I 
begin to feel it sweet to have even life to offer and 
devote to Him, though I hope I shall never be un- 
willing to lay down a body of sin. To depart and 
be with Christ must always be ' far better.' Thank 
you, a thousand times, for the paper on John xx. 
and xxi. ; it was peculiarly a word in season. Truly, 
a risen Jesus would not have us selfishly seek- 
ing the enjoyment even of His own society, so much 
as to be proving the reality of our love in real 
devotedness to Him. "What a test it w r as to Peter, 
when ' Lovest thou me V was followed up by 
4 Feed my sheep' — not by 'Come and lay down 
your life, that you may be with me.' I think this 
is very, very strong, when we remember how shortly 
before Peter was wishing to die that He might fol- 
low Jesus." 



140 MEMOIR OP A. L. NEWTON. 

And she adds : " I meant to indulge in sending 
you some of the thoughts I have been greatly enjoy- 
ing to-day on the Transfiguration, but I must not 
send more than one. Did it ever strike you ? Peter 
desired prolonged intercourse with Moses and Elias ; 
but c a cloud overshadowed them' (put them into the 
shade), and a voice out of it said, 'Hear Him,' to 
make Jesus the prominent One ; and they then found 
themselves left alone with Jesus !" 

Looking back upon the way by which she had 
been led that season, she writes, April 19 (1849): 
" I have been thinking so much lately of those words 
c Count it all joy when ye fall into divers trials,' &c. 
Mine have been very varied this winter ; and some- 
times the variety and the prolongation of them seem 
to induce a spirit of ' heaviness.' (1 Pet. i. 6, V.) But 
we are o;oin£ onward throuo-h the wilderness ; and it 
is a grand and wonderful thing so to be brought 
throuoh it as to be willing to be, more and more, 
bereft of every stay, that at length we may come up 
out of it, leaning on our Beloved alone ! We shall 
be very anxious for further tidings of your dear 
brothers. Don't you think God often stirs up the 
prayers of His people for any one particular object 
of His mercy, by some trouble which attracts all eyes 
to centre on that one person for a time 1 I believe 
this is often the secret of the showers of blessing 
which follow such afflictive dispensations. May it be 
so abundantly in this instance ! and, if it be His holy 
will, may both brothers be given back to you, even 
in this life, as Lazarus was to his sisters, though, after 



A RETROSPECT. 141 

all, it can be but for a season ! I am sure we get to 
feel, more and more, that we cannot wish or ask for 
any such things unconditionally ; but, in holy sub- 
mission, it is our privilege to breathe out every wish 
into our Fathers ear, and He delights to answer, and 
even to do for us far more exceeding abundantly than 
ever we ask." 

She left Torquay finally in May (1849). "A de- 
lightsome land it had proved to be," writes her sister, 
who was with her ; " not only because a measure of 
health had been one result from our sojourn in it, but, 

most especially, on account of Dr. 's spiritual 

watchfulness over his beloved patient. His commun- 
ings with her were what she valued above everything 
else." But she rejoiced to follow the Lord's leading. 
" 'He fed them,' " she herself writes, indicating to a 
friend where her feet stood so firmly, u ' according to 
the integrity of His heart, and guided them by the 
skilfulness of His hand.' His heart, His hands, His 
integrity, His skilfulness ! it is according to this 
measure we are fed and guided. l Fed' implies the 
whole pastoral care of a shepherd ; and all this care 
God takes of us, according to the integrity or perfect- 
ness of His heart ! What surer provision could be 
made for us ?" 



" The Lord's my Shepherd, I '11 not want ; 
He makes me down to lie 
In pastures green ; He leadeth me 
The quiet waters hj. 



142 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

a My soul He doth restore again, 
And me to walk doth make 
"Within the paths of righteousness, 
Ev'n for His own name's sake." 



CHAPTER X. 

Adelaide reached home once more in May (1849), 
not again to leave it imtil she should reach her home 
in the heavens. 

In her Diary she writes: " May 12. 'Therefore, 
with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of sal- 
vation.' How precious the sources of our joy are ! 
Not summer or winter streams, but wells ! May 
we not say of Jesus — ' The well is deep V n " May 
15. Greatly enjoyed Deut. vii. 20, as an answer to 
the prayer, ' Cleanse thou me from secret faults.' " 
"May 16. Thought very much of the comfort of 
knowing that God accounts our litttle span of life 
'long-suffering,' and that He should so appreciate 
our difficulty as to taking it joyfully, as to apportion 
such strength for the need. (Col. i. 11.)" " May 19. 
1 Tarry ye here and watch.' Lord, grant that I may 
act thus, whilst thou art interceding for me in yonder 
heavens within the veil !" "June 3. Trinity Sunday. 
4 Your life is hid with Christ in God ;' a very sweet 
Trinity text, connecting the thought of the quicken- 
ing Spirit with our ' life.' " 

Elsewhere, in the Diary, she writes : " Received 
the Lord's Supper, to offer and present myself, body 



144 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

soul, and spirit, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively 
sacrifice to Him who died for me !" And again : 
" Bodily exhaustion seemed to hinder spiritual per- 
ception all day ; but I could ' cling to Christ.' " 
And, another day : " Spent the whole Sabbath at 
home, but fed upon the Word." And another : 
"Enjoyed Eom. viii. 34, with v. 10; the emphasis 
laid on the resurrection of Him who is our life." 
And another : " 4 1 have prayed for thee, that thy 
faith fail not.' There is something very precious in 
knowing that Christ has prayed for us, even before 
we know our danger." 

Her letter-writing, like all her other engagements, 
continued to be consecrated to God. " I always feel 
the interchange of Bible thoughts," she says, on 
May 26 (1849), indicating her method of serving the 
Lord in this employment, " a kind of letter- writing, 
which cannot be classed as waste of time or as a 
frivolous pursuit. May I look to you now and then, 
for a word in this way, to help me on 'in the know- 
ledge of our Lord and Saviour V I have been think- 
ing very much of the real test it is of love to Jesus, 
when the enjoyment of Christian friends, meeting to- 
gether to talk of the things they love best, is broken 
up that each may be sent forth as a messenger to 
others, to tell sinners of the living ' Way.' Jesus, 
after His resurrection, tarried not to indulge the fond 
affections of His people, but, rather, just showed 
Himself to them, and then sent them forth to do His 
bidding : For example, Mary — c Touch me not, but 
go to my brethren, and tell them,' <fec. ; or, the dis- 



A TEST. 1^5 

ciples — ' As my Father hath sent me, even so send 
I you ;' or, Peter — ' Feed my sheep.' In no case did 
Jesus stay to converse with them for mutual enjoy- 
ment, but would have them engaged in telling 

11 ' To sinners round, 
What a dear Saviour they had found.* 

And, hard as it may sometimes be to tarry here 
willingly, even for such a purpose, we certainly may 
well be content, if Jesus gives to us first, and then 
tells us to distribute to the multitude." 

With a rare naivete, we find her indicating, in al 
lusion to a friend's intended marriage, a characteristic 
feature of her own heart, thus (June 8, 1849): "I 
hope they may help each other to give themselves 
first unto the Lord : but I own I often look on and 
wonder and adore, when I think of the way by which 
/ have beeu led ; for, had I had a husband to please, 
I believe I should just have plunged into love in that 
4 out and out' way which would have made the 
words, i She that is married careth how she may 
please her husband,' apply, with more than ordinary 
force to me. I know that my heart knits so closely 
to those I dearly love, that it is not without reason 
that I have been hindered from setting my affections 
on an earthly object, but allowed One, in human form, 
on whom I may legitimately indulge in centering them 
all. and that, too, without fear of disappointment !" 

And, with a chastened delicacy, she adds : This 
natural feature in my character betrays itself in my 
peculiar love for, and enjoyment in Canticles ; for 
13 . 



146 MEMOIR OF A . L . N EWTON. 

there is, perhaps, no character in which I so love to 
think of Jesus, as He who has given Himself to His 
Bride, loving her even more than she can love Him, 
and allowing her that closest of all kinds of inter- 
course which else could not have been known. Is it 
not a sad, sad proof of our fallen state, that the very 
ordinance which God appointed to shadow forth this 
is so often the one which, more than any other, 
draws off our hearts from Him \ n 

Vinet writes : " How difficult, while enjoying 
external peace, to keep awake ! "What exertion is 
necessary to move forward on a sea whose waters 
have been rendered heavy as lead by a fatal calm !" 
Tasting this reality, Adelaide writes, June 14 (1849) : 
" How thankful it made me to find that you had 
got the peace inwardly, amidst your sufferings, which 
I got so exactly in the same way ! I never was so 
happy before, as when I was so ill, I have found 
even my partially restored health bring with it many 
new and painful trials and conflicts, and could some- 
times almost prefer the bodily pain. But, oh ! if we 
can but choose nothing for ourselves, and calmly ac- 
cept the needed discipline in the form and under the 
circumstances God chooses for us. happy are we !" 

And to another, on June 23: "I hope you will 
write to me soon — though, if vou have verv little 
time to spare for me, I would sooner ask you to use 
it in prayer. I do so want quickening ! I can get 
plenty of ideas, and am strong enough to study and 
think just now ; but is it not worse than nothing, if 
one finds pleasure in these intellectual enjoyments, 



"KNOWING" AND ''FEEDING." 147 

short of Christ ? Are you able to get into real, close 
communion with Him at present ! If so, do take 
me with you into the Holiest. I really am afraid to 
indulge my pleasure in c knowing,' lest it interfere 
with simple ' feeding.' Still, I do believe God is 
leading me onwards and upwards in His own way ; 
and it is well to be humbled." 

In the same letter, she adds : "lam a good deal 
stronger ; but I fancy my chest retrogrades, from a 
few bad symptoms. But they may be only tempo- 
rary. / don't know. May I only ripen for glory !" 

And, on June 26 (1849), she addresses another 
friend thus*: "I hope you are enjoying the 'strong 
meat' of the Word : this is one of the precious pri- 
vileges belonging to those who, through a longer 
sojourn in Mesech, ' have had their senses exercised.' 
Is not that a strong word \ I am so fond of it in 
Heb. xii. 11, the fruit of righteousness being one of 
the gains to be reaped from being exercised by 
chastenings ! ' Exercised thereby.' Oh ! it speaks 
volumes ; it tells of days, and weeks, and months, 
and years, it may be, of inward conflict and outward 
trials, exercising us ; and not in vain, for the peace- 
able fruit of righteousness shall be reaped in due 
time. So let us comfort one another with these 

precious words, dear M , counting it still all joy 

when we fall into divers trials, for the trying of our 
faith worketh patience ; and when patience has had 
her perfect work, we shall be i vessels unto honour,' 
to display throughout eternity the exceeding riches of 
the grace and glory of Him who wrought it all in us ! 



148 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON 

Milner, in his " Church History," writes : " To 
believe, to suffer, and to love, was the primitive 
taste." Henry Martyn,.in his Diary, says, that "no 
uninspired sentence ever affected him so much." 
Dear Adelaide was growing more and more in this 
" taste." " I can, in my little measure, sympathize 
and weep with you," she writes, June 27. "I have 
been so struck with Ps. xliii. 4, that I must tell you 
about it. The expression which we render ' God, my 
exceeding joy,' is in the Hebrew, l God, the joy (or 
gladness) of my joy' (as in the margin) ; and the 
two Hebrew words have each their own specific 
meaning— one signifying, properly, the throbbing, or 
quick beating, or palpitating of the heart in joy; 
and the other being a word of gesture (from the 
root, to roll), and hence meaning a 'joy which ex- 
presses itself in the gestures of the body, as in 
leaping or jumping up and down for joy.' So that 
the two together seem to imply the being pervaded 
through and through with joyousness, from the 
indwelling of that God who is Himself ' our exceed- 
ing joy.' One can hardly find words to put such 
thoughts into. I think Ps. xvi. 11 beautifully ex- 
presses it, ' In Thy presence is fulness of joy.' And 
did it ever strike you as rather remarkable, that 
David should have used that expression about God, 
at the very moment that he was complaining of 
being ' cast down V It seems to me so comforting ; 
for it shows what our real portion is in Him, even 
when we feel desolate, and cast down, and disquieted, 
does it not ?" 



JOYOUS NESS. 149 

Her trials were giving her that tender sympathy 
with fellow-pilgrims, which mere knowledge cannot 
give. " It seems to knit my. heart closer than ever 
to you," she writes, " that we are both being made 
to feel the gentle pressure of the hand in which we 
are held. There are trials peculiar to illness, espe- 
cially to protracted illness, which none can know but 
fellow- sufferers under them." And to another : " I 
do, indeed, feel for your poor sister. Do send her 
this text, ' Strengthened with all might, according to 
His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffer- 
ing with joyfulness.' How blessed to think of the 
end to which we are strengthened with such amazing 
might ! Not to do some great deed, or accomplish 
some mighty act, but ' unto all patience.' And not 
only to the mere endurance of evils which we can- 
not escape, but c to all longsuffering with joyful- 
ness. 1 " 

Her health this summer rather revived. a I dare- 
say G told you," she writes, July 15, " how well 

I am just now. I am thankful, because it enables 
me to write and speak for Jesus ; and one word in a 
letter may be a word in season. To be vessels of 
mercy filled with the Spirit, so as to speak only as 
He breathes through us, is indeed an honour. May 
we both richly enjoy it during whatever time we 
have still to sojourn here — be it years, months, or 
days ! And then to be vessels of glory ! Oh ! may 
we not well rejoice with joy unspeakable, in prospect 
of the glory which shall be revealed in us ? Rom, 
viii. 18, with Eph. i. 17, 18." 
13* 



150 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

The Christian self-reproach is oftentimes misun- 
derstood. 

Henry Martyn, for example, writes : " The pride 
which I see dwelling in my heart, producing there 
the most obstinate hardness, I can truly say my soul 
abhors. I see it to be unreasonable, I feel it to be 
tormenting." But, almost with the same breath, he 
adds : " I wish for no service but the service of God, 
in labouring for souls on earth, and to do His will 
in heaven." Dwelling more u in the light," and real- 
izing more vividly his heavenly calling, he is, even 
whilst progressing in holiness, weighed down with a 
growing sense of the unworthiness of his walk." 

"I do feel so strongly," Adelaide writes, Aug. 
13 (1849), " what you say of the need of 'being 
stirred up to do what we can.' It is marvellous we 
can be such triflers on affairs of such moment ! Do 
you not find an increasing sense of calm confidence, 
that all the horrible coldness, deafness, lifelessness, 
which so characterize our walk with God — while 
they hinder our enjoyment — still cannot affect our 
safety ? I fancy it is a thing only to be learnt by ex- 
perience — and for this good reason, that, if we felt it 
before our sense of sin had become deep and distress- 
ing to us, we might be careless about sin ; but, in the 
after-experience of the child of God, when he has 
learned (or, rather, is learning) by habitual watchful- 
ness to detect the little, hourly, secret sins which 
cause him such an aching heart, he learns, at the 
same time, that, while the waves of corruption may 
dash him back when he ought onlv to be flowing 



THE ACHING HEART. 151 

towards the shore, they still cannot make him lose 
his hold of the Rock to which he is anchored. I 
seem to rest very much on such thoughts as these, 
srf late." 

Another lesson experience was teaching her. 
" Though I have the character of being very well," 
she writes, Aug. 14, "it is not without many days 
and hours which weariness of mind and of body ren- 
ders almost useless, except, indeed, so far as they are 
part of that chastening whereby I am c exercised.' I 
have thought very much lately of the gain it will be 
to have lived a certain time after one's conversion, in 
order to learn out the lessons one can never learn in 
heaven. I believe we shall all c meet the Lord' with 
such varieties of feeling ; — the young Christian with 
the ardour and warmth of ' first love,' but the ma- 
tured believer with a depth and richness of attach- 
ment which would characterize, in its measure, the 
meeting of old and long-tried friends after prolonged 
separation, and which others can never know. Don't 
you think this is quite consistent with each having 
the full share of happiness each is capable of? or do 
you think it is taking earthliness of feeling too much 
into heaven ? I do think our light afflictions work 
out afar more exceeding weight of glory." 

Paul -peaks of the "law in his members" warring 
ao^; * le " law of his mind." A poet has written * 

Jompulsion, from its destined course 
JChe magnet may awhile detain ; 
But. when no more withheld by force, 
It trembles to its north a^ain : 



152 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Thus, though the idle world may hold 
My fettered thoughts a while from Thee 
To Thee they spring, when uncontrolTd. 
In all the warmth of liberty." 

" I cannot tell you," Adelaide writes, " how I dreaa 
worldliness of spirit returning on me. Oh ! how bit- 
terly one has to learn the folly of wandering IVom the 
side of Jesus, or rather, I would say, of gric vmg His 
Holy Spirit; for that is what I believe Christ ins lose 
by, strictly speaking. I think that is the sou/ce of 
all our misery "and ^happiness." And, referring to 
various acts of service which she had been doing on 
behalf of Ireland, and also of the Jews, she adds: 
" One only longs for willing hearts to devote our- 
selves and our substance, our time and strength and 
talents, to Him whose own purchased property they 
are. I do long, as you say, just to live each moment 
as if the opportunity might soon be gone." 

A craving for an intenser fellowship of hearts than 
earth affords, took a faster hold upon her day by 
day. "Your visits," she writes, Sept. 17 (1849), 
"quite refreshed our old friendship, though they 
were so brief. There is something so essentially 
binding and lasting in Christian love, that, wherever 
it exists, friends are and must be friends, however sel- 
dom or often they may meet, till they meet for eter- 
nity. No words can tell the delight I feel in every 
such friendship — begun in the bud in time, to ripen 
and bear fruit for ever. Oh ! for better communion ! 
"We shall have it, when we have ' patiently endured.' n 

A friend was taken away, and she writes : " I am 



THE MAGNET. 153 

left : pray that I may not be a cumberer, but a good 
steward of time, health, and talents, still lent to me 
to trade with. It is quite remarkable how many 
whom I loved are gone, and have left me behind, 
more and more bereft of all but Jesus ; but His ful- 
ness often fills my little earthen vessel to overflow- 
ing, and — but for sin within and without and all 
around me — I should be happy indeed." 

And to another : "I am truly sorry for you, in 
one sense, for the loss of your dear baby ; but surely 
I must rejoice with you, too, if it is a treasure laid up 
for you in heaven, and drawing your affections thither 
also ! Accept this tiny little book — will you ? — as 
saying what I like to say on that subject. I wrote it 

just after dearest H B died. I have since 

lost my most intimate friend ; but I love to think of 
her as a treasure there, and I feel how good it is for me 
to be weaned from earthly objects of affection. Oh, 
that we may all be found enthroned with Jesus in 
glory — serving Him here, praising him there !" 

Another bereavement drew forth her sympathies 
thus : "I cannot think of your brother as buried in 
the ocean of this world's sea, without much more 
thinking of him as buried in the fathomless ocean- 
fulness of the love of God throughout eternity. 
While the earthly house of the tabernacle of clay 
was sinking in the waters of time, the spirit of life 
which inhabited that earthern vessel soared on high, 
and winged its flight to those unmeasured heights of 
the love of Christ which pass all knowledge, and into 
which he has passed to all eternity. Oh, dear E -, 



154 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

may God in Jesus, by the abiding indwelling of the 
Comforter, enable you to bury all your sorrows in the 
depths of His sovereign love ! Very many of those 1 
loved most are gone before me ; and I find it such a 
blessiug to have my treasures laid up there instead 
of here." 

And she adds : " But I could not try to comfort 
you under an affliction such as this, in any other way 
than by speaking of Christ, who is Himself the em- 
bodiment of all the members, and in whom we shall 
so soon all meet, to be for ever with Him. To think 
of ourselves only as members of His body (so as to 
forget ourselves as separate individuals, and think of 
ourselves only as parts of a wdiole), or to think of 
our trials and circumstances less in reference to our- 
selves, than as parts of God's perfect plan, are the 
two great objects I try to aim after, and which I 
think you will find most calming. It seems to put 
man in his place, and God in His. But I am so 
afraid of wounding where I would only wish to pour 
' the oil of joy,' that I shall not try to say more. 
May He who is anointed to do it, give you all that 
< oil of joy !' " 

As the winter approached, her health appeared to 
suffer less than usual. " I have not known what it 
is to be as well for years," she writes, October 1G 
(1849). "Even this severe cold does not hurt me ; 
but how long it may last, I know not. The character 
of God is my grand subject this year. I have got it 
in fifty-two points, with six texts on each ; and it is 
such a rock to rest upon ! To see what God is, and 



MEDITATION. 155 

that He is — an eternal present ! Ob, it is wonderful, 
and so precious, as contrasted with all the tossings 
to and fro of frail man, even though he be a vessel 
of mercy ! The water in the bottle may be spent, but 
not the water in the well." (Gen. xxi. 15 — 19.) 

With that delicacy of touch which only one 
dwelling in " the light" can attain, we find her hand- 
lino- a feature of the hidden life thus : " In regard to 
meditation, forgive me if I say I think you are in 
bondage about it. My idea of it is this, that it is a 
thing one cannot set oneVself to as a prescribed 
duty; nor do I think it is enjoined upon us as such 
in Scripture. It is not within the reach of the newly- 
converted soul, but belongs to those who, in studying 
the precious "Word of life, begin to see such beau- 
ties, and such heights, and depths, and lengths, and 
breadths in Divine wonders, that, as they read, they 
are constrained to pause, to wonder, to adore, to get 
breathing time in which to admire the intensity of 
the mysteries of Divine revelation. Thus St. Paul 
seemed to give vent to his meditations in Rom. xi. 
33, or in Rom. vii. 24, 25, on a quite different sub- 
ject. Don't you agree to this ? Old writers dwell 
upon it till they put it almost in the place of a Sav- 
iour, just as more modern ones write of other parts 
of Christian experience. Cant. v. 10 — 16 is the 
sublimest meditation I know of, and it came out of 
the overflowings of a full heart, and not out of one 
set about to meditate because meditation was ' sweet' 
and profitable. I think the way to arrive at medita- 
tion, is, to read the words and revealed thoughts of 



156 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

God, till you can't help it. Your own thoughts 
become so full of it, that you meditate almost un- 
consciously. 

" Would that I knew more of this most blessed 
occupation !" she adds. " God grant that your letter 
may stir me up to fresh enjoyment of it by leading 
me more into those green pastures where (to use a 
homely illustration) one may eat the grass, and then 
chew the cud. I have kept up very well this summer 
in my invalidish way, living almost entirely up-stairs, 
and never once stirring beyond the garden. But I 
have suffered very little to what I used to do, and 
only long for grace to consecrate every energy of mind 
and body to our Jesus. Humanly speaking, I may 
live a great while longer in this sort of way. God 
bless you, while you live and when you die, • and make 
you a blessing.' " 

And again, on Oct. 19:" What depths of grace 
and of sin Christians have to learn out ! The lower 
I sink, the higher grace rises. Ps. xcviii. 1, with 1 
Cor. xv. 57, have been an immense comfort to me, 
God getting the victory by Himself and for Himself, 
and then in free grace giving it to us, so that we 
don't even conquer, but He does it all." 

And to another, on Oct. 29 : " Your gourd is 
withered before your eyes ; but i rejoice in the Lord, 
and joy in the God of your salvation.' You will find 
it an immense help to you in your spiritual advance 
to have made the sacrifice to God, no matter in what 
light the act may appear when viewed in reference 
to other things. I have long felt, that in our fear of 



EARNESTNESS. 157 

denying ourselves, or doing good works meritoriously , 
we run into the opposite extreme of self-indulgence, 
and of amusing ourselves with innocent worldly 
pleasures and doing nothing for God. How we need 
to be kept in all these things, by the guidance of the 
Spirit of truth, lest in one way or other we fall into 
error !" 

And she adds ; " Oh ! if one may but win one soul 
to Jesus, it is worth the sacrifice of one's whole life 
to do it ; but / think we ought to expect to do a great 
deal, seeing that all the power is God's and He only 
wants to use us as a manufacturer sets his machine 
in motion. The wheels and pins don't do the work, 
and yet it is done by them. Is not that a strong ex- 
pression, ' They limited the Holy One of Israel V I 
will send you a splendid text — Luke v. 5, 6. It tells 
volumes of man's impotence (hours of fruitless toil), 
and God's omnipotence (working wonders in one 
moment by one word) ! Faith, too, is the instru- 
ment — ' At thy word I will let down the net.' Why 
don't we launch into the depths of God's love, and 
enclose such blessino-s as would weli-nio;h break our 
feeble ' earthen vessels?' There are multitudes of 
fishes in His ocean-fulness, which faith might catch ! 
\ Lord increase our faith !' " 

Her life grew more and more intensely earnest, as 
she hastened towards the mark. Writing to a be- 
reaved friend, Nov. 16 (1849), she says: "Our 
correspondence has sadly broken down ; but I never 
can keep one up only on one side — I never seem to 
know what exactly to write about : and to write 
14 



158 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

about anything appears more like the unprofitable 
topics of conversation which too much occupy the 
world, than like the earnest intercourse of fellow- 
pilgrims to a better country ; — above all, when, as is 
the case with us, we are both warned so emphatically 
by illness not to stop and play with flowers by the 
way. But I have been really anxious to assure you 
of my true sympathizing love under your late deep 
trials. With all the fulness of sympathy which is 
treasured up for us in Him on the way, and with 
the bright prospect before us of a happy and joyful 
re-union for ever in glory at the end, have not we 
enough to change ' the spirit of heaviness' into ' a 
garment of praise' ?" 

And a glimpse into her special experience at this 
period follows : " I do get to feel so much more 
every day, that nothing but the absolute, naked 
reality of having God in Christ for my portion and 
my everything, can satisfy me. I have been stripped 
bare this summer of those happy feelings which I 
used to enjoy so much, in order to be made to trust 
God without them, and, even when walking in dark- 
ness, to be stayed upon my God. (Isaiah 1. 10.)* 
It has not made me unhappy, but it has emptied me 
of any joy which belonged to myself, and has shown 
me that the only true and abiding joy is in the Lord. 

* Alluding to this subject in another letter, she says : "I 
know I owe this very mainly to dear Mr. G-elTs sermons 
years ago. which the Holy Spirit was pleased to make use 
of in laying a foundation which no subsequent trials or 
storms could shake." 



COMING GLORY. 159 

" Habakkuk," she adds, u was set to learn this les- 
son by being stripped of bis outward comforts and 
reduced to poverty and distress — no meat from tbe 
flock, no herd in the stall — nevertheless be could 
say, * Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the 
God of my salvation.' And David was set to learn 
it by bitter disappointment in his friends — ' My soul, 
wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from 
Him' (Ps. lxii.) — the whole Psalm showing* how 
from rich and poor nothing could be expected in 
this world. Oh ! it is hard — very, very hard — to 
learn this for one's-self, is it not % It has cost me 
many a bitter hour; but in one way or another I 
suppose we must each of us learn it. And I can't 
help thinking that you and I are being taught it — 
you more in the way that Habakkuk was, and I 
more in David's way ; though every one has pecu- 
liarities belonging to their own peculiar characters 
and circumstances, and giving a varied colouring to 
their specific trials." 

For a time it was intended that she should again 
winter in Torquay. " Though in most respects bet- 
ter," she writes on ISTov. 1*7, "I feel conscious of the 
existence of the underground workings of disease, 
which others do not see. I have been quite in a 
swoon whilst writing this letter ; but I am better 
again now, and wish to forget all these little things 
as soon as they are past. They are but the circum- 
stances of the way, and are unworthy of a thought 
compared with the coming glory. Oh ! that our 
hearts mav be more engrossed with that ! How 



160 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

near it may be to each of us ! Come, Lord Jesus, 
come quickly !" 

And, on Dec. 5, she writes: "The cold has at- 
tacked me at last, and I have gradually been tum- 
bling down each day this week. I am just waiting 
for the pillar of cloud and fire to move first, and 
make it plain whether I am to go or stay." And a 
fortnight later : " I am well enough to have great 
expectations of staying at home altogether this win- 
ter, but God has given me to feel very willing to stay 
or go as He points out for me. Things seem so much 
more and more to me every day to be as though 
they were not : 1 Cor. vii. 29 — 31 is perpetually on 
my mind. I seem more to live upon God, less upon 
feelings and experience." 

Another affecting glimpse into her inner life oc- 
curs in the same letter : " I long to own to you, 

dearest , though I have said it to no one else, 

that I have the feeling of having learned so much of 
such wonders of grace that I don't know what to say. 
I 'm sure I need keeping down ; and I don't think I 
can be .thankful enough that the hungering, and 
thirsting, and fainting state is mine, rather than the 
fulness of happy joy which I once felt. That I may 
be emptied and Christ exalted, self crushed, and Je- 
sus set up — these are the things I seem most to want. 
Only I cannot express it, even to you. Oh ! the com- 
fort — the intense comfort — of knowing that God 
reads the secret thoughts of our hearts which we 
cannot express ! Still one wants to tell of His good 



SEND ME. 16.1 

ness, and to make our boast in Him. But it is hard 
to boast in Him, is it not ? 

U4 'I cannot make thy mercies known 
But self-applause comes in!' " 

When Henry Martyn left England and all its 
pleasant attractions, be " left it wholly for Christ's 
sake," says bis biographer, " and he left it for ever." 
As he was on his voyage out, he wrote one day in 
his Diary this entry : " Sept. 23. We are just to 
the south of all Europe, and I bid adieu to it for 
ever, without a wish of ever re-visiting it, and still 
less with any desire of taking up my rest in the 
strange land to which I am going." It is this spirit 
of self-sacrifice which alone gives to the Church its 
power. With it she is like Samson in his Nazarite 
strength : without it she is Samson shorn of his 
locks and grinding in prison. " We are too prone 
by far," writes Adelaide, Dec. 19 (1849), indicating 
her impression of the Church's real condition, "to 
cry out for ' money — money,' and to be lamenting 
that we can give so little, whilst the secret truth is, 
that what God asks and expects is — ourselves. 
1 My son,' says God, c give me thine heart ;' and well 
did He know when he said that, that everything else 
would follow. At the present day few offer them- 
selves to work for God without being well paid for 
it ; and I begin to think we shall have to find that, 
if missionary work is to be done, it must be done by 
the sacrifice of ourselves. ' Here am I, send me.' " 

At the close of the year she decided to remain at 
14* 



162 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTOR. 

home. " God has made His way plain before me," 
she writes " I never felt so willing to have it all 
ordered for me before. I have strong indications 

now and then that the ' love-token' (as dear 

calls it) is not taken away ; but my duty is ' patient 
waiting.' Oh ! do ask for quickening grace for me. 
I hope you have enjoyed this Christmas in thoughts 
of the great mystery of godliness." 

Her own " Christmas thoughts" she records in her 
Diary thus : " Most holy, holy, holy — holy God ! we 
thank Thee that unto us a Son is born — unto us a 
Child is given ; that the government shall be upon 
His shoulders, and that of the increase of His govern- 
ment there shall be no end, upon the throne of David 
and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish 
it with judgment and with justice for ever ; that a 
' day' is coming in which He shall be revealed as 
1 King of kings, and Lord of lords,' when His name 
shall be on His vesture and on His thigh. May we 
know Him as the Saviour by whom our sins are all 
forgiven, and not only forgiven, but dethroned more 
and more every day ! May Thy grace be mighty to 
subdue them all, that, not only in our spirits, but in 
our bodies, we may glorify God, till at length we 
come to realize more of the holy anticipations which 
are set before us in the brighter scenes and nobler 
society which we hope soon to join, in that countless 
throng among whom we, too, would cast our crowns 
before the throne, and before the Lamb who sitteth 
upon the throne for ever and ever !" 



CHAPTER XI. 

This winter and spring (1850) were occupied with 
her work on the Soxg. " The demand for books at 
the present day," she writes, on March 16, to a friend 
who was publishing, " seems to me to make a won- 
derful opening for saying a word for Christ. And I 
am always glad when any one writes on the Bible ; 
I think other books are only valuable in proportion 
as they lead to it. You will be surprised when I tell 
you that Xisbet has got an arrangement of texts of 
mine on Canticles. It was my happy employment, 
the two first years I was at Torquay, to find them 
out ; and I have since written them out, just connect- 
ino- them together with a few words. The wav has 
been made so clear in regard to it, that I hope God 
intends for me to be a silent messenger for Him in 
that manner. It is a sweet subject ; it is so full of 
Christ, and lets one into so much of the feelings of 
His heart towards His Church." 

Henry Martyn once wrote in his Diary : " Read 
Isaiah the rest of the evening ; sometimes happy, and 
at other times tired, and desiring to take up some 
other religious book ; but I saw it an important duty 
to check this shVhtino; of the Word of God." Dear 



164 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Adelaide found in the Word the very living manna 
from heaven. " I believe I may say with truth," she 
writes, " that some of the texts I sent you last have 
been the language of my heart both night and day. 
4 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God ; when 
shall I come and appear before God V May you find 
the Lord's words an ever-deepening source of truest 
enjoyment, opening fresh beauties to your astonished 
gaze with every fresh discovery of the fading nature 
of all that Solomon calls ' vanity !' And may you 
ever have One present, as a Companion to whom you 
can talk without weariness or ennui in your most 
lonely hours !" 

Growing in meekness, she grew in calm repose of 
spirit. " I do love all God's dealings with me," she 
writes, " and would have none of them altered, if I 
could. My burden is only what every Christian 
groans under — sin ; and I know I shall never be rid 
of it till this body of sin is entirely destroyed, and we 
are altogether planted in the likeness of Christ's re- 
surrection. Oh ! will it not be wonderful to be a 
body of glory, emitting light in every direction, and 
dwelling in pure, essential light, ? raised in power,' all 
our present weakness and dishonour having passed 
away, so that even Jesus shall be admired and glori- 
fied in us ? And I have liked so much lately to 
think how this bright ray of glory, instead of casting 
a shadow upon everything here, rather sheds a beam 
of light to gild our pathway heavenwards." 

A birthday wish for a beloved sister she breathes 
forth thus • "January 29, 1850. As a tree of right- 



HOUSEHOLD OF GOD. 165 

eousness planted in the garden of the Lord by His 
own right hand, and as a branch of the t-rte vine, 
grafted into Jesus, may you be daily more and more 
4 filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by 
Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God !' and 
further still, may the precious promise be fulfilled in 
you, 'And her leaf shall be green !' (Jer. xvii. 7, 8.) 
Even the smallest things about us should be full of 
the sap of the Holy Spirit." 

The "great cloud of witnesses" "declared plainly 
that they sought a country." Not less plainly did 
dear Adelaide " declare " to all around her where she 
was going. " The words, ' household of God,' " she 
writes, " have often struck me lately as beautifully 
expressing the full realization of what is now only 
'the household of faith.' And when one strongly 
feels the unsatisfactoriness of seeing ' through a glass 
darkly,' it is impossible not to long to launch into 
the full blaze of light — in God, when all the mem- 
bers of the now scattered family shall for ever meet 
in the ' Father's House.' I don't think I ever knew 
so well before what it is to be sensibly nearing the 
port by every passing hour as I have done lately. It 
is a real and precious truth, whether the time be 
comparatively long or short ; and it seems to help 
me on wonderfully, though I have no idea where- 
abouts I am. It is sad and really painful to be a 
child, and have so little of a child's feeling towards 
such a Father. But if I am only humbled under it, 
I believe it will magnify the exceeding riches of the 
freeness of grace " 



166 MEMOIR OF A . L. NEWTON. 

What joy and what strength we often lose by 
being overcome of little trials ! " In the midst of 
plenty to try me," she writes, Jan. 11 (1850), "I 
have been so quiet, that I can only say it shows what 
' the peace of God ' can do. It is not great troubles, 
but constant, wearing annoyances, that I refer to — 
little daily trials ; but I don't feel them at all as I 
used to do. ' They shall not be ashamed that wait 
for me."' 

The delicate organism of the " new creature " she 
realized with a growing sensitiveness. u How very 
precious His thoughts are," she writes, 4> when we 
can at all enjoy 'fellowship with the Father and with 
His Son Jesus Christ !' and yet how easily — oh ! I 
can scarcely believe, and cannot tell you, how easily 
— I let sin interrupt and hinder me from coming 
near before Him ! But, if it surprises me, it is no 
matter of surprise to Him who knew from the begin- 
ning what a transgressor I should be. Don't you 
think this thought is one which gives us most con- 
fidence in God ? If anything could happen which 
He had not foreseen, it might change His mind to- 
wards us ; but all His thoughts beino* to onve us ' an 
expected end,' does seem so intensely to assure our 
hearts before Him, does it not ?" 

In spite of an oppressive langour, incident to her 
complaint at some of its stages, and, this spring, pecu- 
liarly trying, she laboured on at her work. " I have 
lately been transcribing," she writes, Feb. 6 (1850), 
" the whole of the texts on Solomon's Song. It seems 
to be the way God has marked out for me to serve 



HEIRS OF GOD. lbi 

II im ; and I desire from the heart, to say, 'Thy will 
be done.' Precious, indeed, is the privilege of serv- 
ing such a Master in the humblest ways — whether in 
passive waiting or in active serving. I often have 
days on which I am all but good for nothing ; but, 
after all, these bodily fluctuations are but a small 
thing. How we ought to long for powers to serve 
God perfectly ! and yet, let patience have her per- 
fect work first." 

Vinet, speaking of " the look directed towards 
Jesus," and contrasting it with " meditations and 
discussions on free will, or assurance, or the connex- 
ion between faith and works, and even on the proper- 
ties of faith" — all which, he says, " tend to occupy 
us too much with ourselves, and give too strong a 
hold to that vivacious self-interest which catches at 
and clings to everything," remarks : " In proportion 
as it is prolonged, it inspires our soul with a holy 
enthusiasm, a holy love. It makes those dispositions 
habitual and dominant in our heart. It becomes at 
once the light and the heat of our life. It facilitates, 
simplifies, illumines all. It does better than refute 
doubts, it absorbs them. In its brightness, all their 
equivocal or false glimmerings are quenched." Ade- 
laide Newton, each new day, entered more deeply 
into this momentous truth. " The watchword I 
chose for the new year," she writes, on Feb. 6 (1850), 
" was — ' Heirs of God.' I think we are too much 
taken up, as Christians, with our Christian character 
and duties, and meditate far too little on our posses* 
sions and privileges. God, and nothing less, is our 



i68 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

inheritance ; for we are i joint-heirs with Christ.' 'lis 
true that it involves ' if so be that we suffer with 
Him' now for a few days on the earth ; but then it 
is in fellowship with a risen Jesus, and it leads to 
everlasting glory with Him hereafter. I send it you 
to think of, and mvke your boast of: we may glory 
in the Lord, you know !" 

It was this peculiar characteristic of her Christian 
life which gave such fragrance to her words. She 
was ever herself dwelling in the light; and her aim, 
in every letter and in every conversation, was to 
bring others up with her into the same light. " Don't 
you think," she writes to a friend, on Feb. 7 (1850), 
u there is something very sweet in being comforted 
and refreshed together by our ; mutual faith V I 
have another most precious word from the mouth of 
our God to send you — at least one that has been a 
great comfort to me in giving me fresh courage 

about dearest , when I had begun to be very 

desponding — ' There is no restraint to the Lord :' 
whether the outward circumstances be encouraging 
d* not, whether 4 with many or with few,' it is equally 
easy to Him to save. And there is one thought 
which I have enjoyed resting upon, in connexion 
with these circumstances, very much lately, viz., 
that what Omniscient love has proposed, Omnipotent 
love will bring to pass. What a Rock that is to fall 
back upon, when the waves of affliction toss one to 
and fro !" 

" I enclose," she continues, " some very sweet texts 
for you. Two, particularly, have struck me very 



PRAYING FOR GOd's GLORY. 169 

much. One was, when Jesus was praying in the 

garden for the removal (three times over) of His 
bitter cup (not composed of one thorn, like St. 
Paul's, but of a crown of thorns, &c), instead of 
His request being granted, He only seemed to get 
the same answer St. Paul got — " My grace is suffi- 
cient for thee.' ' There appeared an angel from 
heaven strengthening Him.' I thought it was very 
strengthening to us, in similar circumstances of pro- 
longed trial, to be brought into such evident fellow- 
ship with Jesus in His sufferings. 

" ■ I of this cup am drinking, 
To be conformed to thee.' 

The other text was in the 12th of St. John ; the re- 
markable contrast between those two little prayers 
of Christ's — ' Father, save Me from this hour ;' and, 
- Father, glorify Thy name.' The first prayer for 
His own deliverance from trial He Himself seemed 
to negative — ' but for this cause came I unto this 
hour ; whilst the second prayer, for God's glory, 
was immediately answered by the voice from heaven. 
Does it not teach us a veiy sweet lesson about 
prayer, at the same time affording the precious 
evidence that prayer for deliverance from the hour 
of trial is ' Christ-like' — only it is swallowed up in 
the yet dearer object to a Christian's heart, his 
Father's glory ? It is so blessed to know that we are 
praying as Christ prayed." 

u Oh ! I cannot tell you," she adds, " how I feel for 
all the aggravating circumstances of trial which press 
15 



170 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEKTON. 

on you just now ; but i everlasting arms' are up- 
holding you, and I know it is love appoints it all. 
What a depth of unutterably precious meaning is 
enfolded in that one word — ' God is love !' I was 
thinking of the words, ' I will be to you a God,' this 
afternoon, in the sense of a God of love — ; I will be 
to you Love.' Don't you think it throws a glowing 
tint, as it were, over all His dealings with us ? The 
words you once gave me — ' Thy righteousness is like 
the great mountains, and Thy judgments are a great 
deep' — have been helping me to think of the heights 
and depths of the love of Christ lately ; for every- 
thing God does, seems to be swallowed up in love. 

On another occasion, taking up those words, " Our 
days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none 
abiding," she says : — " It struck me as full of mean- 
ing, when our years are counted by days, as they are 
in Scripture — ' The days of our years are threescore 
years and ten.' It really seems more consistent with 
the pilgrim character to reckon by days, does it not ? 
(James iv. 13, 14, 15.) ' Here have we no continuing 
city, but we seek one to come' — ' a better country' 
(or, as some render it, a home, or fatherland) — 
' Strangers and pilgrims on the earth.' And is it 
not a gracious contrast ? — ' days on the earth,' but 
eternity in heaven ! Days of sufferings, but pleasures 
for evermore ! ' Our days on the earth are as a 
shadow,' 

u l But the bright world to which we go 
Hath joys substantial and sincere.' " 

- She w T as no "lingerer" at the gates of Sodom. 



ADAM AND JESUS. 171 

" Oh ! why," we find her inquiring, " are we not 
more transformed into the very image of Jesus ? I 
think it is because we so little seek the indwelling 
of His Spirit. It is so vain to reform our lives, 
words, and acts, unless the transformation springs, 
from first to last, from the root, and source, and 
author of life within us — is it not ? I will send you, 
1 Her leaf shall be green* (Jer. xvii. 8), with ' I shall 
be anointed with fresh oiV (Ps. xcii. 10) — the sap or 

the oil of the Spirit. Dear is reading me 

1 M'Cheyne's Life' again : how sweet it is ! He did 
so realize his full acceptance and completeness in 
Jesus. And why should not we ? I was greatly 

struck by a remark from a dear friend in D , the 

other day : ' I only see two men in the word — Adam 
and Jesus ; and I think God only sees two. All are 
seen as either in Jesus or in fallen Adam. Chris- 
tians are lost sight of, and Jesus is seen ; and God 
treats Christians as part of Christ.' Don't you think 
we should try more and more to forget ourselves as 
individuals, and to see ourselves as parts of a whole 
— members of a Body, burying self our religious 
self, quite as much as our natural self. 

Her happy thoughts of God both lightened her 
own trials and " gave her the tongue of the learned 
to speak a word in season to the weary." u I will 
not take up your time," she says, after mentioning 
some details about her illness, " by writing about 
these seen things, which are but for a moment. 
How soon they will be forgotten for ever, except as 
the goodness and tender mercy of our Father in 



172 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

heaven is developed and exhibited in them !" And, 
writing to another, on February 16, she says: "I 

really can only think of you and as in the 

midst of the burning fiery furnace heated seven 
times : but I always see a fourth, like unto the Son 
of God, with you ; and your furnace is heated by 
love, and not by ' the wrath of the king.' It is c the 
furnace of affliction' in which you were ' chosen.' 
How wonderful to be ' purified seven times !' " 

And on February 28 : u I shall be entering to- 
morrow on the twenty-sixth year of my sojourning 
on earth. Ask for me, that whether for time or for 
eternity I may henceforward walk in the light of 
God's countenance. Do you remember talking to 
me once about ' Jesus lifting up His eyes to heaven V 
(John xvii. 1.) How His eye would always meet 
the downward glance of His Father's eye ! It has 
given me such sweet, happy thoughts about our 
heavenly Father's countenance. For, in Jesus, the 
same must always be true of us. And don't you 
think the Father's face is always irradiated with 
looks of love, the natural dictates of His heart of 
love, and that His countenance always beams with 
lovingkindness i Oh, will it not be wonderful to 
look up full into our Father's face, and really to be 
able to enioy the blaze of that lio-ht as it beams 
from His countenance in glory? I think those 
words in Jude give us such a wonderful idea of our 
perfectness in Christ, that He is able to present us 
faultless before the presence of His glory. In that 
excess of brightness, that light where there is 'no 



TIDEtS OF LOVE. 1*3 

darkness,' to be ' faultless !' And, dear , is it not 

as true now of you and me in Jesus, as it is of dear 

B C , who really was presented there this 

day last year ? So that God is lifting up the light 
of His countenance upon us even now. It does 
seem so wonderful that we can desire to come into 
contact with such light — the very thing which by 
nature we so shrink from : c Men loved darkness rather 
than light.' " 

And to another : " I have no idea whatever now 
of seeing you or Torquay. Perhaps never! But it 
is enough to know, that He who sees, leads His blind 
ones safely and rightly. Oh, it is sweeter than I can 
express, to leave it there ! How good God has been 
to me, to make me feel it so ! I wish I knew how 
to be thankful ; but I shall not have to wait a bit too 
long for powers to praise, when Jesus will be Himself 
the leader of the praises of His people ' in the great 
congregation.' " 

And to a deeply-tried friend, a week later, thus : 
" The verse I should like to send you is Ps. xlii. 7 : 
'All thy waves and billows are gone over me' — 
tides of love, i waves and billows' springing out of 
the ocean of God's love, so that they cannot over- 
whelm, but only plunge us into its unfathomable 
depths. I have thought of it many times for you in 
connexion with Phil. ii. 27 — c God had mercy en 
him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I 
should huve sorrow upon sorrow.' And it is fol- 
lowed so beautifully in the next verse, by God com- 
manding His lovingkindness in the day-time, and 
15* 



174 MEMOIR OF A. L. KEWTOX. 

enabling the soul even in the dark night to sing l His 
song.' " 

Not the Spirit's work in her, but Christ's work 
for her, was still the object of her daily thought. " I 
often feel," she writes, " that we go tossing about on 
the tides of Christian experience, which are for ever 
fluctuating, instead of lying peacefully at anchor on 
the Rock of Ages." And iu another letter, of 
March 6 : "I cannot find a single instance in 
which, either in the Gospels or in the Epistles, 
Christians are taught by example or by precept to 
make a study of their own hearts. I cannot help 
thinking that Christian experience has far too much 
taken the place of the study of Christ and of the 
character of God, and that this accounts in great 
measure for the low and desponding state of so very 
many Christians. Do you not think that the con- 
stant study of His character would far more effec- 
tually teach us our depravity than poring into our 
own P 

And on March 30 : " This morning, under some 
peculiarly trying circumstances, those words, i Be 
careful for nothing] came home to me with such fresh 
power ! I believe that, in the very act of making 
everything known to God, His peace fills our souls. 
Have you ever noticed that joy and peace are the 
two things Jesus came into the world to bring — - on 
earth peace,' 'glad tidings of great joy?' And they 
are the two things which, during His last conversa- 
tions with His disciples, He seemed most specially 
tc have on His mind — l These things have I spoken 



"CHRIST FIRST, THE CHURCH NEXT." lYo 

unto you, that in me ye might have peace ;' c These 
things have I spoken unto you, that my joy in you 
might remain, and that your joy in me might be full.' 
(This last verse is literally rendered from the original.) 
So these are the two things I would especially desire 
for you as your purchased right and privilege to enjoy 
in Jesus." 

Adelaide was, by birth and education, and also by 
enlightened attachment, a member of the Church of 
England. But " Christ first, the Church next," was 
her guiding maxim ; and the more she frequented 
" the light," the more did the two objects assume 
their due proportions. " As to our own Church," 
she writes, on April 2 (1850), "in what a fearful 
state it is in Devonshire ! What should we do but 
for the assurance, ' The government shall be upon His 
shoulders V I think the Church is merging her 
character of Christ's bride into that of an ecclesias- 
tical body ; and I see no remedy but for each member 
individually to seek to belong to it rather in the 
former sense than in the latter — a bride in com- 
munion with her Beloved — a believer panting after 
secret intercourse with Jesus. May each of us enter 
closer into Him, and hide us deeper in Him ! So we 
shall be safe, come what will." 

Her forthcoming book she refers to, on April 15, 
thus : " Will you take the burden of this work and 
cast it on the Lord for me ? Tell Him the book is 
His— written with His time, His teaching, His talents, 
by one whose purchased property it all is. Certainly 
there is a vast mixture of sinful infirmity to mar and 



176 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

defile it; but then He chooses base things. So 
you see, I draw comfort from my baseness ! Do im- 
plore His blessing on it for me." If works done in 
His service were oftener gone about in this way, we 
should seldomer hear of blunt sickles and sheafless 
reapers. 

And, in the same letter, she says : " I have heard 

from dear . She sent me two half-sheets full — 

very kind, and to me very hopeful. Not a word of 
actual religion ; but then, you know, she is not one 
to profess even what she feels. And throughout it 
there is to me an evident consciousness that her 
whole way of living is wrong and unsatisfying, and 
that she does not enjoy it, and can't. She declares 
she likes me to write to her, and says she would 
write to me if she could say anything worth saying. 
Indeed, I do think God is at work with her, embit- 
tering the world by degrees. She is giving up balls, 
and wishes for quieter amusements : when she tries 
these she won't find them the least more satisfying : 
and may we not well hope that in due season she will 
give up seeking it anywhere but where it is to be 
found ! He who alone is able to save her yearns 
over her far more fondly than you or I. What a 
sweet assurance!" 

Notwithstanding the Derbyshire climate, her health 
this spring rather improved. " I suppose," she says, 
" 1 must say a word about the earthly hut ! It has 
weathered the severe winter, under the shelter of 
i the shadow of the Almighty,' most bravely ; and 
here I am at home, better rather than worse. I 



RELIGIOUS DISSIPATION. 17Y 

*ook on and wonder. God is having His way, His 
higher' way than mine ; and I am waiting on Him, 
I hope, to know and do His bidding." 

And her soul flourished like the palm tree. "I 
get calmer rest at times in His love than ever 
before," she writes. "But I constantly feel that 
conflict lies before me, and I want very much to be 
prepared for it. Have you thought much about the 
Evil One and his associates? (Eph. vi. 12 — margin.) 
What part of the Word is occupying you most ? Is 
it not sweet to be sitting under his shadow ? While 
all other shadows are so essentially ' fleeting,' with 
Him there is 'no variableness neither shadow of 
turning.' He is at once the Sun, the Rock, and the 
Shadow. Precious Saviour !" 

The bane of the religious world is religious dissi- 
pation. There is not a little gathering of the manna; 
but there is not much of it eaten. The consequence 
is, a cry everywhere heard, " My leanness, my lean 
ness !" Dear Adelaide escaped this snare. " I reckon 
it one of the greatest privileges I ever enjoyed," she 
writes, April 15 (1850), u to have been taken out of 
even the busy religious world, and led to look into 
the deep things of God, which He has so wonder- 
fully revealed in His word." It was this earnest, 
personal, daily communing with God through the 
Word, which gave to her life so healthful a tone. It 
is the absence of this intense individual meditation 
which, like a canker-worm, is eating out the Church's 
life. 

The sympathy of Jesus was ever yielding her 



178 MEMOIR OF A. L . NEWTON. 

fresh consolation. "I should like to send you," 
she write* on April 19, "a verse which has been 
comforting me very much this week ; for I felt 
unusually weary for a few days at the beginning of 
it. It is Matt ix. 36 (marg), 'When He saw the 
multitudes He had compassion on them, because 
they were tired and lay down.' 1 If He has still the 
same feelings which He had when He was on earth, 
how sweet it is to know that His eye is upon each 
feeble and weary child, and that His compassion 
can be moved by the sight of even our bodily tired- 
ness! Oh! if we could but see His look! how 
feeling a look it is ! 'His eyes are as doves' eyes. 
Just fancy Him, for example, looking down from 
the cross upon His mother — what a look it must 
have been I" 

'• Xo, I don't find it solitary," said a Tuscan con- 
fessor lately to one who was condoling with him on 
his imprisonment in a cell; "I have with me here 
Faith, Hope, and Charity." One of these heavenly 
visitors Adelaide especially prized. " I have been 
searching out texts on 'Hope,'" she writes on 
April 30; " they are so beautiful, and it seems to 
me a grace so very litle cultivated and sought after ! 
Yet surely it is one for the advancing believer to be 
abouniing in, just in proportion as he is 4 filled with 
joy and peace in believing.' There is such certainty 
in the Scripture-meaning of l hope ;' and I think 
the real meaning of Eom. viii. 24 is so precious, 
thoi gh our translation dims it — ' We are upheld by 
hope'? " 



AND "WITNESSING." 1 7 9 

With a singular precision we find her defining the 
Bible-teaching upon another subject, thus : " Did 1 
ask you if you had ever thought of the ' sealing' and 
4 witnessing' of the Spirit ? A Scotch friend asked 
me about it, thinking they were the same ; but I 
see manifold differences, one especially, that the 
'sealing' is a past and finished work in its main 
sense, whilst the c witnessing' is the Spirit's present 
testimony to the truth of all that God has testified 
about Jesus — a dailv taking of the things of Christ 
and showing them to us." 

Her heart was thus drawn away from itself 
entirely, and was fixed exclusively upon the Word. 
"My text for you," she writes on April 30, a is, 
' I hope in thy Word.' I do so like the naked pro- 
mise or bare Word of God to be made the stay of 
the soul. How very, very little we think what it is 
to rely on that Word with such excessive caution, as 
if we must be careful how far we trust it! It is 
surely making God a liar to doubt it. I sometimes 
think we look upon a certain kind of unbelief as 
humility, whereas to doubt the truth of the words, 
; He that hath the Son, hath life, 1 is as great unbe- 
lief as to doubt that 4 him that cometh unto me, I 
will in nowise cast out.' Oh ! how little we seem to 
have learned of the truth as it is in Jesus, when He 
has been years in teaching us ! there is so little 
'reaching forth unto thino-s before !' ' 

Tersteegen has finely said, that " the first poison 
which steals into faithful souls is, that they impercep- 
tibly place their righteousness and their confidence 



180 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

in their fidelity, in self-denial, in their virtues and 
graces, in their devotional exercises, and not entirely 
in God alone. The Saviour then opens our eyes, as 
with our own cky ; and thus His wonder-working 
hand has alone the glory, and we the shame." M I 
do really believe," Adelaide writes on May 1, M that it 
is God's grand aim to humble and empty us ; and to 
be emptied of fancied religiousness is the most pain- 
ful lesson, I think, one can learn. Since we cannot 
keep our hearts low, God keeps us in a low condi- 
tion ; and perhaps we are never so truly living on 
Him as when we feel to lie lowest." 

And she adds : i; I have been thinking very much 
lately about Christ being 'made to as sanctification.' 
Don't you think we are very apt to look to His 
death on the cross as if our whole salvation lay wrapt 
up in it alone — forgetting that His death only pat 
away our sin, and that, if we want holiness, it is to 
the thirty-three years of his life that we must turn ? 
I can give you no idea of the comfort it has been to 
me, when feeling I could neither pray, nor love, nor 
believe, nor do anything, to plead all these things as 
perfectly performed by Christ for me." And else- 
where she adds : " Seriously I do think that many 
Christians take Christ only as half a Saviour ; they 
so little realize that it is His faith. His obedience, 
His everything through life, which is to be pleaded 
as ours, as well as His death and resurrection." 

Alluding to a deeply-tried saint at Torquay, she 
writes, on May 3 : ? How wonderfully some people 
are detained in their clay prisons ! And yet only 



"the church perfected." 181 

that God may get Himself more glory at the appear- 
ing of Jesus Christ ! Perhaps none will join as cor- 
dially in the praises of 'the great congregation' in 
glory as those who have had most here to be deliver- 
ed from. Oh ! the depth of the riches of God's wis- 
dom, and knowledge, and love ! Oh, dear , we 

shall never get to the bottom of that depth — never, 
never ! It is a marvel to be on the brink of being- 
swallowed up in it I" 

And, in another letter, speaking of Jesus as " the 
leader of His people's praises in glory,*' she says : 
" Surely His praises in ' the great congregation,' so 
often referred to in the Psalms, must ultimately mean 
! the Chuivh perfected.' And how sweet it is to feel 
that He will then be able to take the lead in every 
song of praise which any of us can sing, as having 
personally known every trouble from which we can 
praise God for being delivered !" 

A schoolfellow^, after seeking rest in intense world- 
liness, had begun to S3ek it in Ritualism. " Don't 
let it distress you,*' she writes to a mutual friend con- 
cerning her : " she will perhaps try formal religion 
as she has the world. The latter has already dis- 
gusted her, I hope ; and ' in due season' I hope the 
former will, still more. How many try everything 
but the right thing, till, when everything else has 
failed, they are just driven to it of absolute necessity ! 
Go on taking her to Christ to be healed ; and so 
surely as He never sent away one sickly, miserable 
body unt ealed on earth, so surely do I believe He 
will send away no sick soul unhealed in heaven, but 
16 



X82 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Blill He keeps saying, \ If thou canst believe, ah 
things are possible.' '• 

And to another schoolfellow, on her marriage : 
•' Though you are not to read this to-morrow, it will 
show you, by its outside merely, that ' the day' is not 
forgotten. I send you some texts as a very tiny and 
humble remembrance of it. I know you value God's 
Word above gold and fine gold, and the adorning 
which is of such great price in His sight, far more 
than any little thing I could have sent you to adorn 
a poor perishing body of clay. When our days on 
the earth have passed away like a dream, and our 
outward adorning has decayed and waxed old, we 
shall still be living witnesses, I trust, of the great 
realities and joys of eternity ! clothed with immor- 
tality! covered with the robe of righteousness! ar- 
rayed in pure white linen robes ! beautified with sal- 
vation, and crowned with life and glory ! Our road 
to all that lies through much tribulation ; but Christ's 
presence by the way tinges every dark cloud with 
brightness, and throws a sacred light on every step 

we take. So, now, dearest A , I sum up my best 

wishes for you in the heartfelt desire that His pre- 
sence may shine on you all through your journey, 
and crown your journey's end." 

Hewitson remarked one day — " I am better ac- 
quainted with Jesus than with any friend I have on 
earth." Dear Adelaide's Christian life gradually 
assumed more and more of this hue. " Try to culti- 
vate," she writes on May 15 (1850), "the thought of 
Jesus as a personal Friend — a real, true, riving Per- 



THE HOLT SPIRIT. 183 

«on ; — j ist as truly so in heaven at this moment as I 
am in this room. You don't see either of us ; but 
you know I am here, and you can think of me ; so 
you know He is there, and you can think of Him. 
Only with this vast and unspeakably precious differ- 
ence, that you can only hold intercourse with me at 
intervals, and by letters or messages through other 
people, but you can always hold intercourse with 
Him, at any moment, and without any medium for 
it to pass through. 

"Oh! the mystery," she continues, u is to my 
mind so intensely wonderful and so sweet, of God's 
Spirit dwelling at once in Christ and in us, so that 
we have literally actual personal communion both 
with the Father and with His Son, through the one 
Spirit which dwells in us all. It would be frightful 
to dare to think or speak of it, if it were not so 
plainly revealed ; but now, I think, it is our privilege 
to know it — and our own fault if we don't, because 
God says he is willing to give the Holy Spirit to all 
that ask for it ; and 1 Cor. ii. 9 — 16 teaches us what 
amazing things we may know if the Holy Spirit is 
our Teacher." 

And she adds : " This is a secret work, just such 
as you want. Xo one need know of it but yourself 
and your Father which seeth in secret. I am con- 
winced that the more you make Jesus your most in- 
timate Friend, breathing out all your secret thoughts 
into His ear by the Spirit (or the breath of life), the 
more you will find that gloomy forebodings vanish — s 
you will forget them, not by trying to do so, but by- 
being pre-occupi^d with weightier matters. And 



184 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTOW. 

you will never regret going to , to be much alone 

perhaps with the unseen God — if it be, as I hope it 
will be, a time for leading you to your Bible, in which 
your spirit may meet God's Spirit, and your solitude 
be exchanged for the sweetest conversations that can 
be enjoyed on earth — those, viz., between God and 
your own soul." 

Her " Commentary on the Song" appeared at the 
end of May, and was very favourably received. " I 
feel thankful to God," she writes on June 17, "for 
making my book of the least use. It was a bold 
step, certainly — such a writer, on such a subject! 
But God chooses weak things and base things, hiding 
His counsels from the wise and prudent, and reveal- 
ing them unto babes. And if He choose to make me 
one of those babes, He had a right to do so, and will 
get Himself glory in the act." 

The " babe" appeared in other ways also. u I 
used to write with great enjoyment to myself," she 
says ; " but I'm afraid a secret self-satisfaction in so 
doing had crept over me, for lately I have been 
peculiarly humbled in this particular way. Ev r en 
the enjoyment of His own Word God has shown me 
to be a thing I cannot have just when and as /will, 
but purely by the gift of free, sovereign grace, to be 
bestowed when and as God sees best for me. It has 
been just the same with prayer, and in short with 
everything. I seem to be beginning to find out the 
bitter and painfully humbling reality that I am lite- 
rally reduced to the condition of a beggar. Oh ! will 
you ask especially for me more of that love which 
vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up V ** 



CHAPTER XII. 

It has been said that the Church's life is a perpetual 
resurrection — an incessant coming forth from the 
tomb. Daily dying, she daily lives. 

" Have you ever thought particularly," Adelaide 
writes, May 22 (1850), " of 2 Cor. i. 6 ? It has 
struck me so much to-day, our salvation being 
' wrought' (marg.) ' in the enduring of the same suf- 
ferings' which the apostles suffered. I do think people 
make ' suffering' to mean too much and too often 
bodily sufferings. We don't read of the sufferings 
of the apostles in illness, but in bearing or doing the 
Lord's work : and the more I think of it, the more I 
feel, what I used to feel when I was so ill, that the 
bodily part was not the prominent part in God's eye 
even then. It was the struggle betwixt my will and 
His will ; and it is the same still. Indeed, I feel we 
make too much of these bodies at all times — pam- 
pering them with sensual indulgences when well, 
and, when ill, taking fresh occasion therefrom to 
serve the flesh ! But it seems to me that the mental 
conflicts, whether in trial or in prosperity, are the 
sufferings which work so much for our salvation. I 
am very much tried in some ways mentally — I feel so 
16* 



186 MEMOIR OF A . L . XEW70X, 

stagnant! but I am able to rejoice in what God is, 
and I hope all this is to humble me, and to lay me 
and keep me low." 

The Lord continued to use her as a labourer in 
His fields. "I have just had a most encouraging 
letter," she writes, "from an invalid cousin, who has 
long been in search of holiness, but looked for it in 
herself rather than in Christ for her. I hope I have 
been the hand to hold the pen to say what God had 
to be said to her. Oh ! how intensely one is made 
to feel that we are no more than the instrument 
through which God the Spirit speaks ! We may 
talk endlessly, and in vain ; but He speaks, and it is 
done." 

Fresh thoughts on the Word rose day by day. 
"I send you Ps. xxxv. 1-3," she writes to one of 
her sisters, June 20. " Fancy asking God to take 
hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for us ! as 
if our armour must be in His hands, not in ours ! 
This so comforted me. And those words in v. 3 — 
• Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation P It seems 
to me one of the most comprehensive prayers in the 
Bible ; and so beautifully unlike the gaoler's ' What 
must I do to be saved?' So self-renouncing, and so 
Christ-exalting ! Oh ! for more of this spiiit ! Never 
do we feel so safe, I am sure. 'Behold, God is my 
salvation ; I will trust,' &c. Then we are happy, let 
what will fail besides." 

Like the heliotrope, occupying itself hourly with 
the sun, Adelaide occupied herself hourly with Christ. 
% \ I have been greatly enjoying the beginning of the 



"seeing JESUS." 187 

first epistle of John," she writes. " One is struck 
with the all-absorbing theme in the apostle's mind — 
no truth nor doctrine, but Jesus. And the way in 
which he introduces Him — ' That which was from 
the beo-innino; [' It seems a natural and favourite 
train of thought, for he began his Gospel in the same 
way. Intimate as he had been with Jesus as the 
Son of man, he loved to go further back and think 
of Him as the eternal Son of the Father. It would 
seem as if Jesus loved to go back in thought to the 
same point — see Pro v. viii. 22-31, where He declares 
that, in the beginning, He was rejoicing always be- 
fore God. So that it is just a proof how John had 
caught his Master's spirit." 

"And then," she proceeds, " i which we have seen 
wil a our eyes.' Jesus said that His disciples were to 
be His 'witnesses' (John xv. 27); and John could 
declare that it was no delusive imagination, but 
actual reality, what he had seen (i. 14.) He had 
se^n the sufferings of Gethseroane, the scenes in the 
palace of Caiaphas, the death on the cross, the empty 
sepulchre (xx. 8), and his risen Saviour (xx. 20, 25, 
29). Therefore, he could speak with all the holy 
confidence of a man knowing that he has the truth 
on his side (xix. 35). But his tender spirit was not 
content to bear so cold and heartless a testimony; 
so he added — 'Which we have looked upon,' as 
though his heart had moved him to gaze, to watch, 
to look with eager eye ! As, for instance, when he 
heard Jesus say from the cross, ' Behold thy mother P 
could he ever forget how he had looked up to Jesus, 



188 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

while Jesus looked down upon him ? He seemed, 
too, to notice the very minutest actions of Jesus, 
twice recording of Him that in prayer He ' lifted up 
His eyes' (xi. 41 and xviii. 1). It reminds one of 
our eyes waiting on the Lord, as David says, in Ps. 
cxxiii. 2. 

" Then it follows," she continues, " 'And our hands 
have handled? Is not this very precious experience ? 
as if the l beloved' disciples of Jesus could never be 
content with anything short of direct personal con- 
tact with Him. He might have been heard and 
seen, and even looked upon, at a little distance, just 
as when Zaccheus was in the sycamore-tree he could 
hear Him, see Him, and even look down upon Him, 
with ardent delight ; but it was as nothing to the joy 
of receiving Him into His own house ! This is some- 
thing nearer and dearer, involving the intimacy of 
personal intercourse. Mary might have tasted it, 
when she ' sat at His feet ;' and the poor sinner, in 
the Pharisee's house, when she washed His feet with 
her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head ; 
and Simeon, when he took up ' the child Jesus in 
his arms ;' and the poor trembling, woman who came 
behind Him and touched the border of His garment 
and was cured. But John, more emphatically than 
any other, enjoyed the precious privilege, c leaning 
on His bosom.' IsTone so l handled' Him besides, or 
had that place on His heart." 

And she adds : " There are wonderful thoughts 
connected also with the expression, ' the Word of 
life.' Life being so clothed in human form as to be 



THE "CLIMAX OF WONDER." 189 

rendered visible and capable of being 'bandied.' 
Jesus, too, being the expression of God — ' tbe Word 
of God.' (Rev. xix. 13 ; John i. 1, &c.) It has 
seemed to me as if John felt that he had been utter- 
ing thoughts so deep, that they almost needed a word 
of explanation (in the second verse of the epistle, 
which he adds in a parenthesis). Do you think it is 
so? I like to think of his nameless way of speak- 
ing about Jesus — ' That which was from the beodn- 
ning ;' and, ' That which we have seen and heard :' 
it is all Jesus ; and it is not so much His words, or 
His actions, as Himself — ' My meditation of Him 
shall be sweet.' And truly our fellowship is with 
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.' I don't 
think I know any text in the Bible to link with this 
oue, except the £ communion of the Holy Ghost.' 
It does seem to me such a climax of wonder. 
Only John xvii. equals it, I think — 'As thou, Father, 
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one 
in us.' Is it not too much for language to give 
utterance to V 

And to another, on July 2 (1850) : "How glad 
I was to hear you say you felt happier by looking 
more to Jesus ! A nice young woman came to see 
me the other evening ; and, as she was alluding to 
her lonely position, without father, mother, brother, 
or sister — and often finding herself misunderstood 
(she is so very shy) and thought distant when she 
meant to be kind — she suddenly stopped, and said, 
* But I tell Him all about it, and that always takes 
the weight off me.' I thought it was so very simple. 



190 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Oh ! that we did but know more of the simplicity 
which is in Christ Jesus ! It often strikes me so 
peculiarly about faith. People puzzling themselves 
so, to know whether they are acting faith or not ; 
whilst, if they were looking at Jesus, they would be 
believing, probably without knowing it, and every 
look at Him would be strengthening their faith. I 
think we often lose immensely by studying doctrines 
and principles instead of a living Christ. He is the 
image of the invisible God, and the very essence of 
heaven's happiness. Have you ever traced Him in 
the Gospels (Luke especially), as betraying in every- 
thing He said or did such extreme loveliness of cha- 
racter ? It seems to me to draw out our feelings of 
love and adoration towards Him in return — often, 
perhaps, insensibly at the time, but very really." 

And again, on July 16: " Do you know a sweet 
little hymn, beginning, 

" 'Nearer, my G-od, to Thee ; nearer to Thee' ? 

I am so very fond of it. All day long, my heart 
seems to be panting after nearness to Jesus. Oh ! 
what will heaven be — to be with the Lord !' But 
do you not think that we might krow a great deal 
of heaven upon earth, if we only walked more closely 
with God ? if our eyes were spiritually open to see 
His beauty all the day long, and our ears spiritually 
open to hear all He has to say to us in His Word V 
And she adds : " It is very much on my mind 
just now, that we do not think enough of the blood, 
of Christ. Under the Old Testament dispensation. 



CO VEX A NT- GOD IN CHRIST. 191 

\i was the one thing they had to think of every day ; 
and in heaven we know we shall be ever singing, 
! Worthy is the Lamb that was slain :' and our con- 
duct here as Christians does not seem to agree with 
all this— do you think it does P 

The day before he died, Samuel Rutherford gavG 
to some brethren who visited him, this charge : 
" My Lord and Master is the chief of ten thousand 
of thousands; none is comparable to Him in heaven 
or on earth. Dear brethren, do all for Him; pray 
for Christ, preach for Christ, feed the flock com- 
mitted to your charge for Christ, do all for Christ !" 
Dear Adelaide, rejoicing in this self-consecration, 
writes (July 18): "Oh! it is indeed sweet, dear 

L , to lay ourselves out in the service of our 

covenant-God in Christ. I am certain none can ever 
regret the time, or health, or life so spent. Each one, 
in our different spheres, must spend it differently; 
but if laid out honestly ' to the Lord,' it shall as- 
suredly be abundantly repaid us, in time as well as 
hereafter. I, for instance, can no longer visit the 
poor and read to them as I once did ; God demands 
a different service from me now. But still He finds 
me work of some kind or other to do every day. I 
can say a word for Him in a letter ; or, as oppor- 
tunity offers, I can speak to the servants ; or I can 
talk of Him, and tell out what 1 learn of Him, to my 
sisters or to visitors. This last was one of my chief 
opportunities at Torquay." 

" It is often extremely difficult," she adds, " to feel 
inclined for this one's-self, and perhaps even more so 



192 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to have courage to introduce it with others; but if 
you will give rue leave to say it, I do believe that all 
these difficulties vanish and fade away in proportion 
as c the love of Christ constraineth us' to live hence- 
forth not to ourselves but to Him. They are won- 
derfully cleared away for us, too, by prayer — spread- 
ing them out before God, as Hezekiak did his letter 
from Sennacherib. He can and often does, I am sure, 
open ways for us to speak and act for Him, when we 
may or may not look out for them — provided only 
we ask Him each day to teach us what He will have 
us to do. Only tell Him you wish Him to employ 
you, and He will soon give you enough to do." 

A man in understanding, an infant in heart ! The 
child occupies itself with its father — expects every- 
thing from him. " My father loves me:'' what more 
is needed to make the little child — itself so poor — 
rich in all its father's treasures ? This infancy of 
the heart led forth dear Adelaide daily, with a new 
simplicity and a new confidence, upon Him who had 
loved her and given Himself for her. Sending a 
message, on July 29, to a friend who was " still 
troubled by looking inwards," she says : "My book 
on Solomon's Sons might cure her of that habit of 
looking at herself, not by telling her not to do it, but 
by bewitching her with Christ's loveliness. Don't be 
shocked at my recommending it ; for it just says 
(without saying so) what cured me of a like habit. 

Dear was the blessed instrument of making me 

quite forget myself by looking at God in Christ ; and 
I hope God will bless that book to the same end. 



T If B "i)OC I RINE OP fc E W A R D ." 193 

'My soul hangeth upon Thee,' are words which I 
cau truly enter into just now. Self is sinking lower, 
and Christ is getting more of His right place, though 
it is rather through humbling than through happy 
experience. v 

On another subject she writes, August 13, thus: 
" I am enjoying your dear uncle's book, ' The Church 
and the Churches,' most exceedingly just now. I 
was reading yesterday his chapter on ' Holiness,' and 
ny as more than ever struck with that wonderful doc- 
trine of Reward. How sweet it is to feel ourselves 
as clay in the hands of the potter, trusting that for 
His own glory He will fashion us into beautiful ves- 
sels — ' vessels unto honour P emptied of self, and 
filled with ail the fulness of God ! Oh ! how one 
dreads to mar the beauty of His work, by defiling 
that temple of God !" 

And on Aug. 17 : " Let me send you Hcs. ii. 19, 
20, with the thought especially, that it is Jesus who 
betrothes you, and not you Him— so that the thing 
is, to question His love to you, not your love to Him ; 
and of His love there cannot well be any room to 
doubt — can there ?" 

And on Sept. 2 : " I am certain we need great 
variety of discipline ; and we get it — illness, health, 
mental trial, family trial, great outward things, and 
multitudinous tiny, inward, fretting, sort of things — 
yes, all sorts, to show us what constant need we have 
of all-sufficient grace, and what innate propensities 
there are in us to be always starting off from a life 
of faith to a life of sight. Oh ! the power of seen 
17 



194 MEMOIR OF A. L NEWTON. 

things ! I think one of the great lessons I have been 
learning out is my exceeding sinfulness — not the sin 
of transgression, so much as the sin of my nature, 
my leprous state." 

JNot boastfully, but in humble thankfulness, she 
writes, Oct. 1 : " I thank my God for all you say 
about my book ; and I can't tell you how many en- 
couraging testimonies He has given me of His hav- 
ing spoken through it many a word in season. It 
has been chiefly blessed, I think, in showing tried 
Christians how perfect and comrjlete they are in 
Jesus, drawing off their thoughts from themselves 
almost insensibly. One, iu particular, said that 
whilst she was enduring the most intense a^onv from 
' tic douloureux' all over her, it seemed ' exactly the 
cordial she needed.' But I need not multiply in- 
stances : if Jesus gets a ray of glory through it, 'tis 
enough." 

And to another : " I have been very deeply in- 
terested lately in ' Owen on Hebrews :' it has led 
me to see beauties and a preciousness in the priestly 
character and work of Christ which I never thought 
of before. One short sentence struck me exceed- 
ingly — ' The want of living up to this truth (His 
priestly intercession) evacuates the religion of most 
men in the world.' But after all," she adds, " I rind 
nothing like the Bible itself. There one seems to 
hear the whispers of God's own Spirit, breathing 
through His own very words. And it all tells of 
Jesus ; and nothing is put betwixt us and Him. 
We ourselves, as His peculiar people, are His holy 



THE "tide of nature." 195 

priesthood ; and Jesus is our great High Priest ; and 
we go direct to Him with the acceptable sacrifice of 
a broken and contrite spirit. And oh ! how happy 
the hours and moments are when one seems to draw 
nigh to the throne of grace !" 

Her health had wonderfully revived. " I have 
been getting decidedly stronger," she writes, Oct. 3, 
" and have been at church the last seven Sundays, 
and really am much better." And she adds : "How 
constantly varying one's feelings are, even towards 
Christ ! Each turn, as it were, in this weary wilder- 
nest seems to elicit fresh natural feelings, and to re- 
quire some fresh application, by His Spirit, of what 
He is to us." And again : M The tide of nature 
often seems to roll me far away from the haven 
where I would be. Still I have a settled persuasion 
that all I lose from time to time is but the sensible 
part of religion, whilst the simple faith which looks 
to Jesus and His unckangeableness, seems rather 
strengthened than lessened by the loss of all other 
feelings." 

And to another : " To cease from man, and look 
for our true enjoyment from our God, I am more 
and more convinced is the lesson of the Christian 
life. We don't know how much we depend on 
creatures and seen things. I do so feel for Lady 

C G in her present fellowship with some 

of Christ's most painful sufferings : but the Lord 
will yet light her caiicile." 

The first edition of her work on the Song being 
exhausted, she was asked to pre»pare a now work. 



196 MEMOIR Of A. L. NEWTOS, 

" As Mr. Villiers proposed to me two years ago." 
she writes, " that I should compare Hebrews with 
Leviticus, and as others have proposed the same 
thing, I really am thinking of it. But though I 
have gone through Hebrews on paper, I have a great 
work before me in attempting to give God's mind 
about it to others, and it w T ill take much time and 
thought. I may sometimes send you any thoughts 
which I particularly enjoy." 

One of these thoughts she gives thus : "I have 
been struck beyond anything with Hebrews lately : 
I am satisfied that chapters vi. and x. are but a part 
of a grand whole ; and by that I mean that the 
whole drift of the Epistle is just a warning to be 
stedfast and not to fall away from Christ. And I 
think there are passages in chapters ii., iii., iv., and 
xii., quite as strong as in chapters vi. and x. So 
many dear good people are in bondage about those 
passages so very unnecessarily ! It is beautifully sim- 
ple, viewed as a grand whole." 

To another Mend (the Hon. Mrs. C ), she 

writes, Oct. 16 (1850): "The subject you mention, 
of guidance, is one on which I feel strongly. Don't 
you think that wherever guidance is honestly and 
simply sought, it is certainly given ? As to our dis- 
cernment of it, I believe it depends upon the mea- 
sure in which we are walking in the light. One 
indulged sin so clouds the sky that it spreads a mist, 
so that to see what God is doing is impossible." 

And in the same letter : M You have asked a 
difficult question about sanctification. Its simple 



DIARY. 19Y 

meaning involves the being set apart to a holy use, 
does it not ? I think, in Jesus we are perfectly jus- 
tified and perfectly sanctified from the first, but are 
momentarily needing the Spirit's work to apply and 
perfect both in us." 

Herself living happily on the bright side of the 
cloud, she was not content to leave any one on its 
dark, Egyptain side. "I do feel you ought to be 
praising," she writes, "much more than mourning 
over your want of better feelings. 'Only let me 
pant after this one thing, that Jesus may be exalted, 
and I nothing. It is the Lord's love to me I would 
see, not mine to Him. I want to look at Him till I 
am not. This will not be, when I find myself hav- 
ing more love to God, more holiness, &c, but when 
I lose myself, and see Him to be my Wisdom, 
Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption.' M 

In her Diary at this period we have the following 
brief entries : "Aug. 31. Sat. Avery precious, happy 
week, in which I had innumerable proofs of God's 
tender mercies to me. Sept. 1. Sun. Went to St. 

J : heard a most painfully distressing sermon on 

Acts ii. 42. Oh, to be in the Father's house above, 
where Christ l the truth' will preach (Ps. xl. 9). 
Sep. 12. Th. Heard dear Mr. Gell, at All-saints', 
from Jude 20, ' Praying in the Holy Ghost,' Such 
a precious word in season! Septt. 14. Eliza Rad- 
ford died about nine a.m. Oh, to win souls ! Sept. 
16. Reached home again from Doveridge, to 'speak 
good of His name' who has dealt so kindly with 
His elrld. Nov 24. Sun. At home all day. Felt 
17* 



198 MEMOIR OF Ac L. NEWTON. 

burdened by a sin-sick soul, but tried to tell my case 
to my Physician." 

Her health, again obliging her at times to be " at 
home all day" on the Sabbath, gave evidence, as 
winter approached, of being precarious as ever. 
Alluding to " a bad attack of sickness and of intense 
pain," she says, Nov. 5 (1850): "It has shown me 
how soon I may be brought to a very low ebb ; and, 
indeed, one needs to be taught lowering lessons in 
temporals as well as in spirituals." 

And in another letter : " It certainly is the trials 
of life w r hich makes one cling to Jesus most closely. 
My Bible is very dear to me just now ; and once or 
twice lately I have felt able to pray again — which is 
always such a comfort. But I believe it is best of 
all when we joy only in the Lord. I have so often 
felt the last few days, that to be covered with Jesus, 
and to be filled with the Spirit, summed up all my 
highest wishes." 

This winter, like the preceding, was spent at 
home. "We have hal so little real cold yet," she 
writes, Dec. 28 (1850), "that I have never been 
made ill by it, so far; and when it comes, if I keep 
in these two rooms as I did last winter, I hope to 
get through very well. I grudge the increasing 
duties which rob me of the time I have so long been 
permitted to spend in feasting on the Word and its 
fulness ; but I know the field of battle must be 
encountered, as well as the green pastures and still 
waters be lain in, for we are not as yet come to our 
rest," 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The family-affections are of God. Antichrist up* 
roots them ; Christ deepens and sanctifies them. 
Dear Adelaide is before us in this chapter the duti- 
ful and loving child. Her filial attachment, no longer 
a mere instinct such as is shared by the lower ani- 
mals, has been elevated into a 'love in the Spirit;' 
and the attachment gains immensely. 

The occasion which illustrates this feature of her 
character is her father's last illness. " I have felt 
it," she writes on Jan. 3 (1851), "quite a tender 
proof of my heavenly Father's gentle dealing with 
me, that, through this excessively mild weather, I 
have been so well as to be able to go after dear Papa 
and sit with him. I feel every hour as if I were 
watching his last days on earth. You may imagine, 
but I could not tell you, what I felt when I said 
' Good night' to him last night, and felt his hand so 
cold — with such a damp, death-like coldness. I had 
meant to write you a few words before going to bed : 
but, once alone, I could not utter a thought to any 
but to Him who could help me to speak them to 
Him, and, for the sake of my own health, I made 
myself get into bed, and cried myself to sleep." 



200 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

And, in her Diary, we have this entry : " July 6 

Dr. and Mr. saw Papa, but gave next to 

no hope. I asked Papa if I might give him a text, 
Isa. xl. 28-31 ; and he said, 'How little, in such a 
time of sickness, one could think ! you might feast 
on what you had already, but could not follow out 
anything.'" And, on the 16th, in a letter to the 

Hon. Mrs. C : "To Papa death will be real 

gain. When the fruit is ripe, immediately the sickle 
will, I know, be put in ; and when I remember whose 
property the field of this world is, and who planted 
and nurtured each spiritual grain of wheat sown in 
it, I seem as if I must be satisfied to have it cut 
down when it is ready. It would argue indifference 
to it in the Husbandman, if He then left it in the 
field." 

And she adds : " I strongly feel how little oneness 
of spirit there must be with Jesus, when we grudge 
Him the fulfilment of His share in God's purposes 
for the sake of our own enjoyment in this stranger- 
world. We cannot spare Him the spirits He has 
purchased, because we cling so fondly to their 
bodies ! But, since He has felt the natural feeling 
of bitterness at parting with a much-loved object, 
we know He shares our sorrow, just as He did Mary's 
and Martha's. And what comfort such thoughts 
give one ! You don't know how true ; Treasures in 
heaven' seems to me now ; I think I wrote it for my 
own profit." 

A trial of faith she notes on Jan. 16 : " You can't 
think how precisely you described what I am feeling 



EE ''FAINTETH NOT." 201 

in that insensibility of soul which kneels before God 
but utters nothing. I hope it is not altogether sinful, 
for I think it must be very much physical. I never 
felt less able to pray ; and even the Word of God it- 
self scarcely seems alive, through my own deadness. 
But I am not unhappy : I think God is just saying 
in His dealings — ' Xow you see what you are, and 
how very weak the flesh is, and how everything de- 
pends on what Jesus is for you, and what it is to have 
my skirt spread over you.' " 

Her triumph of faith is explained, Jan. 24, thus : 
"Have you marked that passage, Isa. xl. 28-31, 
and especially the way the verses are connected ? 
Frst of all, in v. 28, we find those two wonderful 
qualities attributed to * God, the Lord, the Creator 
of the ends of the earth' — that He l fainteth not, 
neither is weary. 1 Only conceive the exertion, 
according to our finite notions, of bearing up a 
world teeming with millions of inhabitants, day after 
day, year after year, and never being weary ! added 
to which, each of these inhabitants wants breath 
every instant, and innumerable other things besides 
Sometimes the thought of the infinite variety and 
number of prayers which are being offered up at the 
same moment has come across me with a feeling of 
overwhelming amazement ; each separately listened 
to, and answered — not, probably, all at once, but by 
a series of events leading at last to the result, which 
turns out to be the answer to i3rayers we have been 
putting up for weeks or months ! Fancy God never 
being tired of listening to all that ! it gives one 



202 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

magnificent ideas of the vastness of His power, does 
it not ?" 

" Then the contrast to this, in v. 30," she adds, " is 
very remarkable : ' The youths shall faint and be 
weary ;' which I understand to mean, the finest de- 
gree of natural strength shall turn out to be weak- 
ness ; and how true it is ! ' But they that wait upon 
the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount 
up with wings, as eagles ; they shall run and not be 
weary, and they shall walk and not faint.' Just 
those who have 'no might' in themselves, are those 
who prove the strongest of all ; for God communi- 
cates His own wonderful qualities to them !" 

A little jotting to one of her sisters, suggested by 
their threatened bereavement, gives a touching 
glimpse into her tender but strong heart : " For 

dearest X . '/ will not leave you comfortless 

(inarg., orphans) ; / will come to you.' (John xiv. 
18.) His offices require His presence with us, and 
His love secures it. He will not leave us. AYe 
never shall be orphans ; for our Father ever lives. — 
Ley lands, Jan. 29, 1851." 

And, accompanying this, are the following simple 
.ines : 

'•'The place, the things, the persons we love best, 
Oft rob us of our place in Jesus' breast ; 
But He too jealous is the heart to share ; 
"Wherein He reigns, He reigns supremely there. 

" The idols He deprives us of shall prove 
But as new inlets to admit His love ; 



"glorious liberty." 203 

Our present loss shall be our richest gain — 
Therein most likeness we to Christ attain." 

(2 Cor. viiL 9.) 

Her father growing gradually weaker, Adelaide 
u took her turn," with her sisters, in ministering to 
him. " I had a very happy day with him yesterday," 
she writes, Feb. 3 (1851); "he is so very peaceful, 
and so tenderly kind. On Saturday morning, very 
early, he told Mamma he had had a very happy 
night, thinking of those two lines — 

" ' If sin be pardoned, I 'm secure ; 
Death has no sting beside ;' 

adding, ' It had but one sting, and that is gone.' I 
know you will care for these few particulars of one 
so inestimably -precious to me." 

And, writing to Mrs. C W , on Feb. 12, 

she says : " He has been the active servant of God 
for twenty or thirty years ; and God is now polishing 
the other side of the stone, and making the passive 
graces of patience, meekness, gentleness, to shine 
forth in him. May I send you the words which have 
especially been on my mind lately — ' The bondage of 
corruption,' in Rom. viii. 21 ? It is such bondage. 
Yet we know that these corruptible bodies are to put 
on incorruption ; and then the bondage will be ex- 
changed for ' glorious liberty !' One longs for the 
time for one's-self ; but it is hard, to my will, to be 
left behind when others go." 

It is a great achievement to " occupy" to-day, and 
to-day only. 



204 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

" ! rich banquet of to-day ! let me feast upon thee, saving 
manna ! 
I have none other food, nor store, but daily bread to-day. 
I find none other place nor time than where I am to-day." 

Alluding to a tendency to look beyond " to-day," as 
" the grief of her present trial," Adelaide adds : " I 
feel ashamed to write this ; for what have I to do 
with the thoughts of a future which may never come ? 
How difficult it is to trust practically, that, as our 
day, our strength shall be ; and practically to remem- 
ber that the Christian has to do only with the present 
moment. 

And the thought is further developed elsewhere, 
thus : " ' Day by day.' The child of God must learn 
that his heavenly Father maintains his cause on this 
wise — ' The thing of a day in his day, as the matter 
shall require.' (1 Kings viii. 59, marg) For every 
trial He sends, He gives sufficient grace for its en- 
durance ! but He promises no grace to bear anticipa- 
tions with ; and we little know how very large a por- 
tion of our mental sufferings arises from anticipation 
of trial. It is most conspicuous, for example, in Ja- 
cob ; and in his case his anticipations were, in great 
measure, positive waste — things turned out so widely 
different from what he had anticipated. These are 
the bitterest ingredients of our trials, just because 
they are self-imposed and must be borne as best we 
can of our own (iveak) strength. Ko wonder they 
are so hard to bear, if God provides no strength to 
bear them with ! Should not we learn, therefore, 
how utterly vain it is to anticipate ? And more — 



"going up." 205 

should not the fact that God has made no provision 
for our anticipations, make us shrink from the indul- 
gence of them ? ' Day by day/ is His direction to 
us ; and ' no thought for the morrow,' is His gra- 
cious, and tender, and positive prohibition." 

The closing scenes are given in the Diary thus : 
"February 26. — In the evening, when I was going, 
dearest Papa put out his hand and kissed me, and 
said, ' Good bye, dear !' and added, l It 's all joy — all 
peace — all comfort!' March 1. — Commenced my 
twenty-eighth year on earth. In the morning, dear- 
est Papa called me, stretched out both his arms, and 
clasped me to him — but I could only hear him say, 
! This is your birthday, dear !' March 5. — In the 
evening, he quite opened his eyes and looked at me, 
as I stood by -his bedside — took my hand— and I 
kissed him. A few moments after, he pushed away 
the pillow, and again looked up at me, and said, 
4 It 's a long time.' Surely this is God fulfilling my 
desires! Thank Him! Bless Him! March 6. — 

At a quarter before two p. m., B came to tell me 

how changed dearest Papa was, and I went down. 
He lifted up my hand in his many times, and begged 
to be raised — to go up — to be lifted up ; and his last 
audible word, we believe, was — ' Saviour !' March 
7. — Again and again in the night he spoke of 'going,' 

and once said to B , ' I 'in ready — quite ready ; 

I onlv want to be o-oino\' About two and three he 
breathed very hard, but became quieter, and breathed 
more and more faintly, till we could scarcely tell 
when it ceased — a few minutes after seven a.m." 
J 8 



'206 MEMOIR OF A . L . XEWTOX, 

March 9, Sunday. — Dearest Papa's first Sabbath in 
'glory everlasting.' March 13. — Went twice to look 
at clearest Papa's earthly tabernacle. This corrupt- 
ible \ shall put on incorruption.' March 14. — All 
that remained of dearest Papa buried in the vault at 
Mickleover, till Jesus says, 'Come forth!' Read 
John xi. It was a day of much tender mercy.*' 

A few days later she writes : " I have grieved to 
leave your kind letter so long unanswered ; but, in 
honest truth, I have had no heart to write. Xuni- 
bers of notes of inquiry, which were obliged to be 
answered, more than used up the little spirit I had 
for mentioning him who now is set free from the 
body of sin and death, and, absent from the body, is 
for ever 'present with the Lord.' It has been a time 
of deep and unutterable sorrow, yet mixed with 
countless mercies and multitudes of tender mercies 
and lovingkindn esses. Indeed, I often feel far more 
inclined to rejoice than to weep ; for, bad as it is to 
be left behind in a world like this, I know I am fol- 
io wino- hard after him — and for himself I have not 

o 

one single feeling but unmixed thankfulness. For 
above an hour after he went, I sat by all that re- 
mained to me of him — the greater part of the time 
being quite alone ; yet not one tear could I shed ! 
No ; I was absorbed in thoughts of unseen realities, 
and so marvellously have they taken possession of 
me since, that I seldom have felt inclined to weep. 
He was buried on the 14th — a lovely, bright morn- 
ing, which filled me full of resurr ction thoughts. 
'Lazarus, come forth !' were words I delighted to 



T3IE INTERMEDIATE STATE.. 207 

listen to the Spirit speaking- in the Word ; and little 
do we know how soon they may be said to all who 
are in their graves now." 

And to another : "I conld not tell you how posi- 
tively happy I was on the morning of the funeral, 
after reading John xi. It seemed so impossible to 
think of the tears Jesus shed over the lifeless body of 
Lazarus, without going on to the Omnipotence which 
said, ' Lazarus, come forth !' " 

And again : " What wonderful, very wonderful 
things are reserved for us there ! I do feel it so 
much, when I cannot even tell where my precious 
father's spirit now is, nor what it is about ! c With 
Jesus' seems there the only thing : and it is enough ; 
yet at the resurrection we shall also know and be 
with each other — don't you think ?" 

Her thoughts were naturally drawn at this season 
to the intermediate state. " I want to know," we 
find her writing on March 17 (1851), " whether your 
mind has ever been called to think much of the state 
of separation from the body. I have been studying 
the believer in Jesus in these three states — 1. ' At 
home in the body ;' 2. ' Absent from the body;' 3. 
- Clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.' 
But I will send you the paper. There is one thing 
which has occurred to me since I wrote it, on the 
word ' unclothed.' It gives me the idea that it is 
a state one naturally would prefer not to be exposed 
to view in (' If so be, that, being clothed, we shall not 
be found naked ') ; and how graciously this feeling- 
is met by the hidden, unseen state of spirits, who, so 



208 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTOK. 

soon as they are ' clothed upon,' will l appear with 
Christ in glory !' I have been reading 1 John i., 
too, and looking out texts on it ; and often have I 
grown breathless through the rarity of so pure an 
atmosphere." 

And, on March 31, she writes: "I have been 
thinking very much about the ' unclothed' state; 
and I cannot but believe, that, while there, each indi- 
vidual spirit is admitted to the fulness of perfected 
communion with Jesus (which is, after all, what we 
most intensely long for as Christians while on earth), 
but that the recognition of saints, and their commu- 
nion with each other, must wait till they are ' clothed 
upon,' and have bodies to see, and hear, and speak 
with. Have you ever much considered this subject ? 
I suppose it is interesting to almost every one, for 
few can be without some beloved friend or relative 
who is there. And the chief charrn to me of the 
thoughts I have lately had about it, is, that it really 
leads one direct to Christ, for it makes Him the 
everything to the spirits who are now ' made perfect.' 
Fancy being free from all sin, enjoying all that Christ 
is, and holding the purest spiritual intercourse with 
Him, being admitted into His felt presence ! Don't 
you think it must just depend on the degree of our 
spiritually of mind here, how far we can truly appre- 
ciate the 'gain' of dying and going to be 'with 
Christ?'" 

The subject took form and shape ere long in an 
octavo pamphlet — " The Unclothed State" — which has 
proved no small consolation toother bereaved disciples. 



"happy in his happiness." 209 

If the Christian's family-affections are adorned 
with a new loveliness whilst the objects of them are 
still here, still blighter and more heavenly is their 
hue after those objects are away. Then especially 
do they shine forth as not mere instincts of earth, 
but as indeed divine. " The real trial," she writes 
March 31, "is to be left behind. Oh; how do I 
need Divine grace, to make me content to wait till I 
am ready to go ! Hitherto there has really been 
such unutterable tenderness and gentleness in each 
thing which God has done, that silent adoration has 
been quite the uppermost feeling of my heart." 

And again : " I really had not heart to write to 
you as long as dearest Papa was here ; it seemed to 
weigh me down with such an indescribable weight 
of anxiety. But since he has been set free from the 
body of sin and death which kept him so long a 
prisoner, I have been quite happy in his happiness. 
I seem only to have to press on to follow hard after 
him, giving up as much as possible the self-will and 
obstinacy of my own naturally stubborn character, 
so that God's will may be done in me and by me." 

11 Lord, we await Thy glory ; 
TVe have no home but where 
The unbroken heavenly family 
Thy joy with us shall share. 

u Our Father's smiles are cheering 
The brief but thorny way ; 
Our Father's house the dwelling, 
Made ready for that day." 
18* 



CHAPTER XIY. 

In this new school of trial Adelaide had been 
learning new lessons. " I feel," we find her writing 

to the Hon. Mrs. C , April 21 (1851), "what I 

had long believed must be the case, that bereave- 
ment admits one to an entirely new sphere of sor- 
row — known only to those who have trodden it. 
The isolation I had experienced from circumstances 
and from illness is so totally different from the deso- 
lation of death! But I do believe that the variety 
of Christian experiences through which we are thus 
permitted to pass on earth, will add greatly to the 
depth of our enjoyment in praising hereafter. And 
when one thinks of spending a whole eternity in 
praises and thanksgivings, it is a very precious 
thought to me just now that prolonged life and 
discipline yield one ampler materials than could 
otherwise have been turned to account to the glory 
of God and of Jesus there." 

And, alluding to the season, in whose services she 
had been engaged, and associating with it the scenes 
through which she had been passing at home, she 
adds : " I have been especially thinking of the 
Lord's body, above all, of His lifeless body. Did it 



THE "DAYLIGHT." 211 

ever occur to you to think of the moment of His 
death, when the darkness which had overhung the 
land for three hours just passed away, to reveal to 
the sight of man His dead body on the cross ? I 
was pondering over it so much yesterday; and I 
think it must have been such a terrific moment when 
the daylight again burst upon that fearful scene. 
The subject is so peculiarly harmonious with all that 
has been so lately passing here, that I have had 
intense delight in reading over all that is recorded of 
the body of our Redeemer when he had ' dismissed 
His Spirit' and left it in the hands of man. It has 
been so precious to me to notice how God owned 
and accepted the fond affection which constrained 
the women to see 'how the body was laid' and 
where, and to linger about the sepulchre. Don't 
you think the record of those little things teaches 
one so very much ? And certainly the Father's heart 
must have yearned over even the lifeless body of His 
well-beloved Son, or the Spirit would not have said 
so much about it. I like to believe it ; for if Christ's 
dead body were precious in His sight, so must the 
dead bodies of His members be, even though they 
are so different. Don't you think so ?" 

" I was wonderfully well," she writes, on April 25, 
" through the winter, and kept up all through 
dearest Papa's long illness ; but I don't feel so weL 
now, and this spring- weather tries me a good deal. 
People think me looking very well, only thinner. 
But, oh ! how I should like to forget all that is of 
tlie earth, earthy, and to think, or speak, or write of 



212 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Jesus and His love, so as that others might be 
warmed, instead of chilled, by coming into contact 
with me !" 

Few did come into contact with her, without 
being " warmed." Her words were not the prophet's 
dead staff, but the living, breathing person. " If I 
could send you one word to give you any pleasure," 
she writes, April 27, "I would not be silent; and, 
whilst I would ask God to strengthen you with 
might by His Spirit in your inner man, I would not 
forget that His Spirit may speak through others as 
well as directly to yourself. Only how often He 
teaches us that it is His own eye meeting ours, or 
His own voice speaking to us, or the gentle pressure, 
as it were, of His own hand, w T hicli tells the depth of 
nis tender love and satisfies the longings of our 
hearts. There is such a secret between us and God, 
that our spirits only, and not our tongues, can give 
utterance to it. And yet there is the knowledge 
that, while we can only utter it in spirit to God, it is 
understood by those who are further on in the road 
to the city of the living God than we are ; so that 
our hearts may be made to burn while talking of it, 
even though we could not give expression to it." 

The Diary thus reveals the way in which she lived 
daily on the Word : "March 23. — Sun. 'He satis- 
fieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungiy soul 
with goodness.' It must, indeed, be His doing ! 
How often the creature-streams run dry !" " March 
28. — 'My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my 
expectation is from Him.' It is true of my ' expecta- 



"breathings. 213 

tion,' that it is from God only ; why, then, do I not 
wait upon Him only? Conduct contradicts prin- 
ciple." "April 12. — c Whoso offereth praise glori- 
fieth me ; and to him that ordereth his conversation 
aright, will I show the salvation of God.' How little 
I see of ' the heights and depths' of the salvation of 
God, when my conversation is all wrong before Him ! 
Ob, for rectitude of heart and life!" "April 28. — 
c He shall not be afraid of evil tidings : his heart is 
fixed, trusting in the Lord.' Mrs. Cavendish came 
over from Doveridge to see me. We went through 
Daniel together; and I hope 'iron sharpened iron' 
mutually. Oh, for fixedness of heart !" u May 11. 
— Had the Communion — real communion with a 

Triune God !" "May 16. — Wrote to dear about 

Prov. xxiii. 15, 16 — the joys of Jesus. He is our 
' wisdom ;' and our words are the breathings of His 
Spirit through our lips !" 

A few such " breathings" occur in a letter, dated 
May 15, thus: "I suppose I must be thankful to 
have even this little taste of Christian communion 
with you, ere we meet in the temple of our God to 
enjoy the fulness of His precious purchased priv- 
ileges. But it seems next to nothing — does it not ? 
— and makes one long to be really at home in our 
Father's house above. I think I told yoa in my last 
note how much I had been thinking of the Spirit's 
joy. This week I have been thinking of the joy of 
Jesus a good deal. Did it ever strike you in 1 
Chron. xxix. 17, taking David as the type of the true 
David, our 'Beloved,' how beautiful those words are, 



214 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

i As for rne, I have willingly offered all these things 
in the uprightness of mine heart, and now have I 
seen with joy thy people which are present here to 
offer willingly unto thee V His was the great offer- 
ing ; and we give ourselves and all we have to give, 
in conformity with His example. Perhaps every cup 
of cold water given for His sake is an offering which 
He looks down upon c with joy ;' and, if so, dear 
, how privileged you must have been in contri- 
buting to His joy ! I often hear of your kindnesses, 
even at this distance ; and how many are known to 
Jesus, who notices even when l it was in thine heart' 
to do them, though perhaps they were not accom- 
plished as you could wish !" 

And to a bereaved friend she writes : " I can share 
in your sorrow, and that not slightly ; but I will not 
(as J. H. Evans so often says) pain you with common- 
place remarks about affliction. I know well that no 
words avail to heal such wounds, except as the Lord 
the Spirit speaks them. The gathering of the 
heavenly family appears often to me to be going on 
very rapidly, and the time of our meeting in the 
many mansions of our Fathers house to be drawing 
nigh. And what a blessed hope it is ! ' Glory!' It 
seems such a marvellous word. l The God of glory' 
— the glory Jesus had with Him from the foundation 
of the world — His glory, which is the Fathers gift 
to Him, and His gift to us — bodies of glory, like so 
many reflectors of the glory of His body ! The 
whole earth filled with it and covered with it. as the 
waters cover the sea ! — and an exceeding weight of 



A RETROSPECT. 215 

it, being the precious fruit of the light afflictions we 
have lovingly had allotted to us here ! The hope of 
glury is indeed a bright one, and might well throw 
the present time into the shades of night, while one 
is looking for ' the glorious appearing' of the great 
' God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' when ' the day' 
breaks and the shadows flee away." 

And to another : " I have only not written before 
because I seemed as if I could not — -not from want 
of feeling, but from feeling too much to be able to 
say it. The lent jewel is returned to its Owner ; and 
Jesus has got it all to Himself— for a little while ; 
but it will not be for long." And to the saint, a few 
weeks later : u I had no idea, till your note reached 
me, that you had again been feeling as if drawing 
near the verge of an unseen world ; but I am heartily 
thankful to God for sparing you to all of us. Yet, 
oh ! how delightful it is to walk on fearlessly and 
happily as if to the river's brink, though it may prove 
to be only to travel on by the river's side, i beside the 
still waters !' " 

A retrospect, suggested by the illness of a cousin 
whom medical treatment had not relieved, occurs in 
a letter, dated May 12 (1851), thus: "How often I 
wonder at God's dealings with me in bodily thino-s ! 
— how gently He led me, after a sufficient number of 
years of discipline, down to Torquay, that life might 
be prolonged, just when I was on the verge of getting 
past recovery ! Then I wonder how long it will be 
for ? But every day I am more satisfied to leave it 
with Him." 



2 1 G M E M O 1 B 1' A . L . NEWTOI. 

"I have veiy, very happy intercourse with Him 
about things very often," she adds. ; - 1 did so enjoy 

the Communion yesterday. I felt I was doing what 
He liked me to do. Don't you know that sort of 
feeling ] And 1 Chron. xxix. 9 seemed to me so 
full of preciousness — our joy in doing in our mea- 
sure what Jesus did rjerfectly, and what caused Him 
such ' great joy.' And the thought of contribut- 
ing anything to the joy of the 'Man of sorrows' is 
so sweet !" 

And again, May 21, to a friend who had paid her 
a very hurried visit : M This wilderness-world is not 
the place for home-enjoyments and society. I re- 
member once having it remarked to me, that, in 
crossing the waves of this tiv-ublesorne world, the 
very wave which rolls one towards a friend speedily 
recedes and bears one away again. But it will not be 
so in the haven." 

And to a friend sojourning in southern Europe for 

her health. Mrs. C W , she writes (May 23) : 

"I should think vou must be feeling a thorough 
pilgrim on the earth ! But still are not the statutes 
of the Lord emphatically at such times your song \ I 
always feel so strongly that He seems to encompass one 
about so much more closely, as the absence of others 
makes room for Him. ' There was no room for Him 
in the inn,' where strangers were crowding together 
in numbers — a large, merry, happy party, doubtless. 
But there was plenty of room for Him in the house 
where only Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus livecL 
And don't you think that is just what one realizes sc 



THE "VALLEY OF HUMILIATION." 2 17 

often dow ? It does not destroy the desolation which 
bereavement makes, and which daily grows upon 
me ; but it sweetens it, and so does the absence of 
friends." 

The low state of the Church of God often deeply 
affected her. Alluding to those words in Amos 
iv. 8, " So two or three cities wandered unto one city 
to drink water, but they were not satisfied : yet have 
ye not returned unto me," she writes : " Does not the 
literal exactly prefigure the spiritual Israel here? 
There is such a state of things in Christ's Church 
militant here on earth, that His showers of blessing 
are withh olden. Here and there a Christian or a 
congregation is found upon whom the rain descends ; 
and he or it is well watered, while all around is 
' withered.' Two or three may wander to that fa- 
voured one ; but even then they are ' not satisfied,' 
because they have still not returned to the Lord, the 
Fountain of living waters." 

Another lesson of her discipline she notes, in a 
letter dated May 28 (1851): " God has been leading 
me in the valley of humiliation of late ; and some- 
times my spirit has seemed all but crushed. I keep 
saying to myself, as I go about like the leper of old, 
' Unclean, unclean !' and can truthfully say, 4 1 abhor 
myself.' I suppose I may read in it all the answer to 
my own prayers ; for I have so entreated to be laid 
low and kept humble, because I felt I was horribly 
self-complacent. And yet I cannot but thank Him 
that He is chastening me and humbling me ; I know 
it is to do me good at my latter end. And this re* 

19 



218 MEMOIR OF A . L . N E W T O N . 

vival of old, secret, unutterable deeps of soitow 
which in their very nature seem unfit to be told to 
any one on earrh, revives a hope that perhaps God is 
preparing me to work for Him again." 

" Hard thoughts of God," it has been said, u is the 
death of the heavenly life." Dear Adelaide was ever 
watching, for herself and for others, against this 
snare. " I have a text to send you," she writes, 
June 12, " which is full of consolation to me ; it is 
Ps. xxxvi. 10, with Parkhurst's Hebrew rendering, 
which greatly adds to its force — 4 O draw out at 
length Thine exuberant goodness to them that know 
Thee.' The word we render lovingkindness comes 
from a root, ' to swell or overflow ;' and when one is 
made to feel the daily and hourly need we have for 
fresh demands upon that goodness, is it not sweet to 
know from Himself that there is such an overflowing 
exuberance of it, and to know, too, that, if in time it 
is a stream which overflows its banks, it will but ex- 
pand into ocean-fulness in the ages of eternity ? 
God goes on teaching me that every fresh ray of 
light from above does but make manifest some fresh 
evil within me ; but, instead of occupying one's 
moments with repetitions of the deplorable depravity 
which seems as if it only increased upon me every 
day, it is a higher and better occupation to try and 
catch even a glimpse of the goodness which fills the 
heart of Christ — is it not ? I deem it my sweetest 
privilege to be His messenger at any time, to give 
you any word from His mouth, or any thought from 
His heart." 



EVIL SPIRITS. 219 

And in another letter, thus : " That passage, Col. 
ii. 13, has struck me very much, as connecting our 
quickening with our forgiveness — ; You hath He 
quickened together with Him, having forgiven you 
all trespasses. Do you not think there is involved 
in it, that, just as Christ's resurrection proved Him 
to have been owned of God as cleared from all the 
load of iniquity under which He died, so, when we 
are quickened with Him, it is a proof that we are 
reckoned clear from all our sin and guilt ! May we 
not take the fact of our being alive (out of our death 
in sin) as certain evidence that the sin which was 
killing us, is entirely put away from us V\ 

Speaking of evil spirits, and of their mode of 
warfare with the saints, she writes, June 28, to the 

Hon. Mrs. C , thus : u Should we take Satan's 

temptations of the Saviour as the example of his 
ways of tempting us ? Did not he tempt Christ by 
presenting objects of temptation — the glory of this 
world, (tc. . ? And when the angel from heaven 
c strengthened Him,' may it not have been by pre- 
senting suitable objects, such as should predominate 
over the others (as ' the joy which was set before 
Hinr ) ] If it was so, may there not be a parallel ? 
This is the first thing I have ever got hold of, which 
seemed to expjain Satan's temptations to me." 

And she adds : " I have a thought about Eph. vi. 
12, which I can't help asking you about. That 
epistle seems to be full of the deepest truths of any, 
and for the most advanced believers ; and if so, may 
not their very advance in spirituality lead them into a 



220 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

spiritual wrestling with ' wicked spirits,' which in a 
lower atmosphere of spirituality Christians are 
scarcely so much as aware of ? Can I give you the 
idea ? Certainly fighting in Canaan is far beyond 
journeying through the wilderness ; and I should 
think comparatively few Christians come to that 
reality of conflict. What do you think i" 

To another, on July 10 (1851), she touches on the 
same subject, thus : " My mind is most stirred up 
just now about ' the working of Satan.' It has been 
very much brought to my notice lately ; and I be- 
lieve there is danger in ' being ignorant of his de- 
vices' and wiles. Have you noticed, in Eph. vi., that 
there are two distinct ways in which he attacks us — 
v. 11, by his ' wiles;' and v. 16, by his ' fiery darts.' 
In such a fearful matter, it is inexpressibly comforting 
that both these verses teach us that the armour of 
God is abundantly sufficient to preserve us from all 
his attacks, if we are but clothed with- and standing 
in it. All his fiery darts may be quenched by faith. 
The ' good fight of faith !' How much conflict goes 
on in the inmost recesses of the inner man, unseen 
by any eye but God's I" 

Adelaide was not a mystic, but an earnest worker. 
" I am as full of occupation as I can be," she writes, 
July 12, "and all for Him! Is net that sweet, even 
though much of it may be passive waiting or patient 
enduring — and that takes up a great deal of time — 
does it not % I have lately had great encouragement 
about the Irish work ; indeed, God has used me in 
many ways." 



THE "GREAT DAT," 221 

And again : " I never can express the happiness I 
have in the different ways God suffers me to give up 
my time and powers to His work and service. You 
have a work to do which I can never have — and it 
must be a verv absorbing one — I mean the care of 
your sweet children, and the training them up in the 
nurture and admonition of the Lord. Oh ! that the 
seed you sow may bring forth fruit, sixty and an 
hundred fold ! What wonderful things we may ex- 
pect to see in that 'great day!' the seed feebly sown, 
and perhaps amidst many tears, yet multiplied into a 
harvest of many sheaves !" 

And on July 23 : u I have been thinking this week 
of Jesus as the burnt-offering : it shows the perfee- 
ness of His work so exquisitely ; every thought, word, 
and feeling being first consumed, and then ascending 
up to God as a sweet savour ! Don't you think it is 
a very great help, in realising your own acceptance, 
to see how abundantly God was satisfied with the 
offering Jesus presented to Him in our behalf ? not 
only a death for sin, but a whole life of spotless 
righteousness ! God ' takes pleasure' in Jesus and in 
all that He is doing. Is it not a shame that we 
should ever go to Him for pardon, either for ourselves 
or for others, as if He grudged it P 

All her visits she consecrated to the Lord. Writ- 
ing to the Hon. Mrs. C , on July 26, she says : 

" Mamma has kindlv arranged to let me have the 
carriage to-morrow afternoon to drive over. Much 
as I long to see you, I own I shall come in weakness, 
and fear, and much trembling. I know by painful 
19* 



222 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

experience that more contact with this evil world has 
most sadly blunted the comparatively keen edge of 
my spiritual affections ; and it must be evident in 
spiritual communion. But I still hope God may 
bring good out of my coming to you, and may make 
it a time of great refreshing from the presence of the 
Lord." 

And to one of her sisters, July 25 (1851): "Did 
I send you ( A Very Present Help V Each moment's 
need through life, and a dying moment's need at 
last, has made it seem so precious to me lately. As 
plainly as we can trace the workings of love in every 
event of Christ's ministry on earth, so it is to be re- 
cognised in every event He administers from His 
throne in heaven. It is a hard lesson to learn out — 
* He hath done all things well,' however fully we may 
believe it ; but we must seek for grace to be able to 
say — ' I am content to fulfil thy will, my God.' 
O! the fulness of that word 'fulfill' to fill up every 
particle thereof, like a vessel filled to the brim ! 
Who is sufficient ? Our sufficiency is of God." 

And to another, on August 8 : "I have not been 

able to enjoy Mrs. C at all as I hoped ; for they 

have another friend staying here who cannot under- 
stand anything beyond the merest ABC of religion, 

and Mrs. C is one of the few who love to read 

the Word of God with me, and to dig into the hidden 
treasures of Christ to be found in it. Still, I hope 
that, however disappointing, I may be learning les- 
sons to conform me to Jesus, especially in bearing 
the infirmities of the weak, and in feeling what it is 



CARRYING THE CROSS. 223 

not lo be at all understood. How trying that must 
have been to Him, must it not ? " 

Vinet lias remarked, somewhere, that the Church 
has need of our sufferings, because she has need of 
our services. "As for the inner man," writes dear 
Adelaide, Aug. 22, rejoicing in that way of the 
Lord, " I hope that, by this weariness of body, He is 
strengthening me with strength by His Spirit, though 
it is rather by a discipline which calls forth His love 
into exercise, than by leading me by the still waters, 
or making me to lie down in green pastures, as He 
has often done. I was struck with the way in which 

Mrs. C often told me it was ' so strengthening 

to carry the cross.' How delightful it is to know 
that every stage of our journey is marked out by un- 
erring love ! and, as you used often to say, ' divinely 
adapted ' to our weakness !" 

And she adds : " I have found that verse very pre- 
cious this week — ' I will rebuke the devourer for your 
sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your 
ground.' (Mai. iii 11.) It is so beautiful with that 
verse in Lev. xxv. — ' I will command my blessing 
upon you.' I think the great enemy of souls so often 
mars and corrupts our fruits by causing pride to bud, 
or by sending some secret sin to eat at their root al- 
most unperceived by us. And is it not very precious 
to go to God with His own Word of promise in our 
mouth that He will not suffer our fruits to be de- 
stroyed i" 

And again : " I have liked Ezek. xxxvi. 29 also 
very much, ii? connexion with Mai. iii. 11. It is not 



224 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

only that He will cleanse us from all our filthiness 
(Ezek. xxxvi. 25), but He adds — ' I will also save you 
from all your unclean nesses ; and I will call for the 
corn and will increase it, and lay no famine upon 
you.' The restraining grace of God is so exceedingly 
precious, in all that He saves us from — is it not ? 1 
think, sometimes, that it will be one of the many re- 
served subjects of thankfulness and praise which we 
shall understand hereafter. 'I, the Lord, do keep it, 
and I will water it every moment : lest any hurt it, I 
will keep it night and day.' " 

She devoted many of her hours this summer and 
autumn to the study of Hebrew. " It is so intensely 
interesting," she writes, Aug. 30, " and seems to lead 
one to so very much fuller a knowledge of God's 
thoughts in His Words — those precious Words which 
have come forth out of His mouth ! I do long," she 
adds, u to dig deeper and deeper into that mine of 
sanctifying wealth. I cannot tell how I enjoy search- 
ing out the idea which each word is intended to 
convey. It runs away with many an hour of my 
time — 1 hope not unprofitably." 

A " weight" which hinders many a pilgrim's race 
she exposes in the same letter, thus : " How slow we 
are to learn that our portion in this life, as ordained 
by God, need be no hindrance, to our onward, upward, 
heavenward course ! I am so fearfully irritated and 
provoked by others, that clouds are ever and anon 
hiding from me the heavenly sunshine which is be- 
yond them. Oh ! what a den of iniquity one's evil 



SELF-REPROACH. 225 

heart of unbelief is ! How precious the spotless 
robe which covers it !" 

It was no incapacity to enjoy the world's pleasures 
which had separated her from its ways. Before her 
illness, she had lost all relish for them ; and now, 
when comparative health was giving her " oppor- 
tunity to return," she still " chose the better part." 
"I have written a note," she says, August 31, "to 

send, through you, to Mrs. , as I have no idea 

where she is. I try to urge her to be more decided 
for God. God has wonderfully helped me not to 
give in at all about becoming more worldly. I am 
resolved, by His grace, to be as openly given up to 
the ' one thing' needful now, as wh^n I was too ill to 
attend to other things. He is very good to let me 
bear this testimony for Him. I feel it to be a great 
privilege, though each day it is more difficult." 

The self-reproach which continued to sting her so 
often, was the result only of a conscience more sen- 
sitive to sin by reason of a closer fellowship with 
God. " I see plainly," she writes, Sept. 5, " that 
half I suffer arises from a desire to be comfortable 
and able to enjoy myself in this life. I know but 
little of taking up a cross. How the life which Jesus 
lived shames me ! You cannot believe how little I 
have of that charity which is c not easily provoked.' 
I need not multiply words to tell you the delight it 
would be to me to see you and hear you talk of 
Jesus — our dear, precious Saviour, and of our better 
and abiding home. I might be, with God's bless* 



220 M EMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

ing, an opportunity of much recovery and restoration 
to my sin-sick soul." 

And, on Sept. 10, revealing the secret of her 
bereaved heart's consolation, she writes : " The em- 
phatic silence of Scripture as to any meeting together 
of believers before the resurrection, and then the con- 
stant and direct assurance of it at the resurrection, 
seem sufficient ground for believing that there will 
not be recognition in the state of absence from the 
body. Of course, I would not affirm that there may 
not be recognition. Every single passage, however, 
where the subject of the unclothed state is spoken 
of, makes the 'being with Christ 1 the fulness of 
their joy. And do you think it in the least likely 
that the hope of seeing our beloved ones again would 
have been deferred to the resurrection-time (as it is 
in 1 Thess. iv.), if it had been to be realized after 
death ? 

" To my own mind," she adds, " there is something 
intensely solemnizing and unutterably precious in the 
thought of being (if one may so speak) shut up to 
Jesus during that season — so filled with the bliss of 
beino- with Him as to need and desire nothing more 
— and yet capable of such an expanded increase of 
enjoyment, when that waiting state is ended, and 
when we shall all be gathered ' together' to Him, and 
all see His perfect image in one another, both visibly 
in our bodies and spiritually in our souls !" 

And, led into a kindred region of Christian expe- 
rience, she proceeds: "That sympathy of spiritual 
feeling which we must believe to exist in a perfect 



"desires" and "groans." 227 

degree between the spirits made perfect, exists also, 
imperfectly, betwixt us on earth and those with Jesus. 
It seems only our earthiness which makes us realize 
it so very little in general. The more I think of the 
wkole subject, the more strongly I am made to feel 
the absolute oneness of the whole family of God, in 
whichever of all our yaried states we maybe. God's 
eye must look upon each and all as members of the 
body of Jesus ; and don't you think that, in propor- 
tion as His Spirit dwells in us, we feel ourselves 
united to all in Him — the whole family in ' heaven 
and in earth ¥ " 

And in the same letter : " ' Lord, all my desire is 
before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee.' 
Each word has been full of comfort to me lately. 
'Desires' and 'groans' all known, even when one 
can scarcely utter either ! And the particular feel- 
ing which that verse had so fully expressed for me is, 
that when a whole day, or perhaps many days, have 
slipped away, and I could scarcely say that I had 
prayed at all, the very groanings of one's spirit have 
been heard and heeded in the upper sanctuary of our 
God. You will understand what I mean, though I 
don't know how to say it." 

Referring to some new tracts which she was pub- 
lishing, she writes, Sept. 18 (1851): " Perhaps I am 
too cautious and fearful, but I never dare take any 
step in the way of printing, unless I see what I 
believe to be indications from God that He 'has 
need' of my attempts to serve Him." And she adds : 
" Mr. Gell said in his sermon last week, that no one 



228 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

should think himself of no use to Christ, for He 
never says to any of His members, ' I have no need 
of thee.' He has need. What an insignificant ani- 
mal it was said of originally, l The Lord has need of 
it.' So I thought that He might have need of me, 
though perhaps He does not need my tracts ; and 
then I hope I shall be hindered from thrusting them 
in His way." 

Like the oak which strikes deeper its roots by 
reason of the winter's blast, dear Adelaide's heart 
was, by reason of her manifold trials, fixing itself day 
by day more stedfastly in Christ. u My mind," she 
writes, whilst on a visit to a not very congenial circle, 
" is very much distracted here ; but I really believe 
it is good to be shaken out of dependence on or 
rest in outward circumstances in all ways. It makes 
me feel how firm the ground is, in resting on the 
Rook of Ages." 

" Lord, we happy children, 
Whilst yet on earth we roam, 
Find in our Father's bosom 
Our spirits' present home : 

11 For where thou art reclining, 

By faith we too repose, 
In thee all rais'd to heaven, 
When thou, our Head arose." 



* CHAPTER XT. 

Ritualism is not Christ. Writing to a school- 
fellow whom the prevailing ritualistic tendencies of 
the day threatened to ensnare, she writes : " I grieve 
to hear so poor an account of the place you are 
staying at ; but, do you know, I don't think refor- 
mation would be half so effectually brought about by 
repairing the church as by visiting the people. 
Don't you think it is a great mistake in these days 
to make so much of church-architecture and outside 
things, instead of real, downright, earnest prayer 
for the work of God's omnipotent Spirit to change 
the stony hearts of the unconverted amongst both 
rich and poor ? I think it is a great snare. I 

greatly fear T is slightly poisoned with the 

High-Churchism of these days ; though he denies it 
in words, his letters have betrayed it to me. Oh, 
how almost universal it is ! My book on Solomon's 
Song is full of the Church ; but it is the Church 
as Christ's Bride, not as an ecclessiastical body. 
4 The Church which is His body,' is my notion of the 
Church." 

On another occasion, addressing the same corre- 
spondent, she writes : " I hope the clergyman you 
20. 



230 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

mention is not the same as a friend of ours heard 
when she was at A ; for he was far from preach- 
ing the truth as it is in Jesus. Oh, how sadly in 
these days the Church is exalted, and Jesus left out ! 
To look at things, as I cannot fail to do, more in the 
light of eternity than others who have not felt on its 
brink, makes evervthino- which will last* onlv whilst 
time lasts, appear comparatively unworthy of thought ; 
whilst the things which ar? unseen — the Spirit work- 
ing in us (like the wind, which is heard, though un- 
seen), Christ who is our life (though now hid within 
the vail), the sustaining vital principle of God's 
strength made perfect in our weakness — all these 
truths are forgotten or not to be talked about, because 
they are too sacred ! and we live very unlike those 
who are sojourners only in a world which must itself 
soon pass away. 

" But," she adds, " there are many who are arous- 
ing from such a life, and devoting themselves as 
servants to do their Master's work, sowing seed now 
to reap the harvest hereafter. This seems to me the 
only true value of life. Were it not for this, it would 
be far better to depart so soon as the soul is won to 
Jesus. But, in the bearing which each moment has 
upon eternity, the saint is sowing ' to the Spirit' as 
truly as the ungodly are sowing wind to reap the 

whirlwind ! Dear , do pray for me, that what 

yet remains to me of life may be each moment spent 
for God : I ask it for you — I feel it to be of such 
eternal importance." 

One day Henry Marty n, after preaching in Cal- 



TTTE ELECTRIC WIRE. 231 

sutta on the cress of Christ as the only way of life, 

was publicly charge! with " driving men to rnopish- 
ness. melancholy, and despair." Starting soon after- 
wards for Dinapore. he was met on his wav by some 
brethren who had assembled to commend him to 
God. u My soul never had such Divine enjoyment;' 
he writes, contrasting the -hip with 

the heartless ritualism which he had left behind in 
Calcutta: - I felt a desire to break from the body, 
and join the high praises of the Church above. 
May I go in the strength of this manv davs !" 
Dear Adelaide also had select hearts in whose 
sympathies she found a congenial home. '• I do 
so feel," she writes, "that very spiritual thoughts 
can be expressed in spirit to God. but not in words 
to man. except as Hi- Spirit makes two minds to 
receive the same thoughts, and then they are mutu- 
allv understood, though scarce' v. perhaps, expressed 
at all." 

Does not this account for that mysterious com- 
munion of thought and of feeling which pervades, 
like one electric wire, the saints who dwell in the 
secret of the Lord's presence? And dees it not 
account also for that not less mysterious incapacity 
of other saints to receive certain truths which their 
brethren discern on the sacred page, written as with 
a sunbeam \ 

Like Martyn, she often longed to '"join the high 
praises of the Church above." *' Frequently I wish," 
she writes, " to be gone to my real home, and to be 
with Jesus/' And, on Sept 19 (1851): "It is 



232 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

singular that you should have been reading the 
seventy-first Psalm lately. There is such precious 
intercourse in it betwixt one's own soul and God ! 
I was thinking last Sunday how very partially it 
could be realised by us in this short life, and 
how greatly we needed an eternal day, such as we 
shall soon have, in which to show forth the now un- 
known numbers of the salvation, and victories, and 
righteousness of God. Will it not be blessed with 
an incorruptible and immortal body, to have our 
'lips' and 'tongue' and 'mouth' filled with His 
honour and praise, literally and uninterruptedly ■ all 
the day long?' and our souls, too, will then so 
1 greatly rejoice' in the perfection of our Redeemer's 
work!" 

Brainerd in his Diary speaks of being so occupied 
with God and His perfections, as exhibited in the 
Gospel of His grace, that his own personal self 
ceased to have a place in his thoughts. " There 
is something," whites dear Adelaide, expressing a 
like experience, " in the very love of our hearts to- 
wards God's ' salvation,' which in itself is quite in- 
expressible. This Psalm (seventy-first) gives vent to 
so much of it to God, in a way which one feels He 
can appreciate, though almost no one else could tell 
what our owm secret experience means when it 
praises Him for His glory, and beauty, and righteous- 
ness, and truth !" 

One of her trials and triumphs of faith she notes 
in another letter, Oct. 1, thus : " The text which 
has been given most emphatically to me lately h 



GODS TRAINING. 233 

Ps. xxxi. 20. The word we render ' pride,' means 
' rough, proud, untractable, vexatious in temper and 
action, which are in life like rugged knobs in a 
road, 5 beino- the same word as in Isaiah xl. 4, l rough 
places, or rugged, difficult to pass ; a chain of moun- 
tains.' Does not this give a marvellous fulness of 
meaning to that precious promise — 'Thou shalt hide 
them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of 
man' — from those who are ever vexing one's temper, 
whenever one meets with them, by the rugged knobs 
which they lay in our way, so very difficult to pass ? 
I am not sure whether you are tried by people as I 
am ; but I feel certain that you will enter into the 
comfort of a promise like this. Just to feel, when 
the trial is pressing hard upon one, that now is the 
moment when God is hiding one in the secret of 
His presence ! Oh ! it is inexpressible relief. What 
wonderful training God's is," she i.dds ; " it is so 
much of it unperceived, not only by others, but even 
by one's-self at the time! I so very often forget 
that He is concerning Himself about me in each 
momentary occurrence of the day. ' The Lord think- 
eth upon me' — e with great exactness' (according to 
Dr. Wilson). I must be intensely provoking to 
Him ! Nothing astonishes me more sometimes than 
that He never wearies of me." 

And to another : M I am sure that you have had 
some very blessed communion with Jesus in His 
Word; and I hope that you will have no silent 
moments even, but that the Spirit may be speaking 
peace to your soul continually. May I send you 

20* 



234 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OF. 

these two words, ' Meat indeed,' with a heartfelt wish 
that you may be richly fed and feasted with all that 
is in Jesus ? ' let your soul delight itself in fatness.' 
1 1 sat down under His shadow with great delight, 
and His fruit was sweet to my taste.' How sweet 
that repose may he in this life, as a kind of foretaste 
of the rest which remaineth ! l Many shall come 
from the east and west, and shall sit down.' Did 
you ever think particularly of the rest from warfare, 
and journeying, and weariness, which is implied in 
the words ?" 

A solace for the sick chamber she puts thus : " I 
comfort myself with that wonderful promise that 
God Himself will be strengthening you upon the bed 
of languishing, and will Himself make your bed. 
Don't you like the marginal reading there — c Turn 
your bed V the word meaning, to ' turn or change 
the condition of a thing.' I think it must be meant 
to teach us God's minute knowledge and care about 
our earthly tabernacle, showing that He can adapt 
His omnipotence as well to the least thing in a sick- 
room as to the greatest thing in a kingdom.'' 

The Word grew daily in preciousness. " I have 
been looking out," she writes to Mrs. Cams Wilson, 
Oct. 6 (1851), "all the different meanings to the 
Hebrew words for prayer, and have found nearly 
thirty, each having some rather different idea at- 
tabbed to it. One, for instance, signifies ' a low, 
whispering sound' (see Isa. xxvi. 16, marg., ' secret 
speech') ; another, ' words set in order before God, 
like the shew-bread' (as in Ps. v. B, i In the morning 



FUTURE AWARD. 235 

will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up') : 
there is also the pouring out of the soul like liquids : 
and there is the opening of the heart, like a cloud of 
incense expanding itself, (fee, <fce. ; all showing, I 
think, most wonderfully the minuteness with which 
God has taught us how well He knows all our varied 
ways of approaching Him." 

The issues of this momentous xow ! who shall fitly 
conceive them i 

ft Each breath is burdened with a bidding, and every minute 
has its mission." 

And what a mission! "Mr. Stowell was lately 
quoting," she writes, Oct. 19, " a remark from some 
old writer, of the necessity for the judgment to be 
passed on individuals being delayed till the end of 
time, because their works do not end with their 
death ; for instance, parents, in training their chil- 
dren, might not reap the fruit, perhaps, for many 
years after they were dead — and so on. In think- 
ing of this, I began to see such wonderful heights 
and depths in the judgment of God, that I have 
been lost in adoration. To think that a word spoken 
or written may be like a grain of seed cast into the 
earth, to be multiplied a thousand-fold, and re-sown 
perhaps again and again from one to another ! and 
yet that each will have exactly his own measure of 
reward in the great day of reckoning — oh ! is it not 
amazing I 

"Don't you think," she continues, "that it will 
glorify God very exceedingly then ? We could not 



236 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

determine what share we have had in the good which 
has been wrought, if one person wrote a book, 
another gave it away, and another lent it — or, to go 
further back, how much the writer of it may have 
learned from books he had, and from thoughts he 
had gathered from others ! One seems lost in a 
labyrinth of which one knows next to nothing; and 
yet each link of the chain must be so clear in the eye 
of God, that He will be able to give to each precisely 
what their thoughts, and words, and actions will have 
produced in all their varied and multiplied results. 
Did you ever exactly think of it in this way ? it 
seems to have opened up such a field of wonder to 
my mind ! And while, on the one hand, it seems to 
fill every moment of time with immensely increased 
importance, giving us an interest in it not only 
during our own short span of life, but until time 
shall be no more, it also gives one an idea of the 
boundlessness of God's knowledge and of the recti- 
tude with which He will come to judgment, which 
fills one with adoring wonder and delight ! Of 
course, you will not misunderstand me as meaning 
anything of merit in this." 

Luther used to say that "justification by faith 
alone," was u the article of a standing or of a falling 
Church." Dear Adelaide felt it day by day to be 
the article of a standing or of a failing Christian. 
" What a glorious subject the atonement is !" she 
writes, referring to Lev. xvi. " The perfect remis- 
sion of our sins through the one offering, the Lord 
Jesus Christ, once and for ever ! Xo works, no 



AN ANXIETY CALMED. 237 

repentance, no services needed for our acceptance 
with God ; for all was wrought for us in Jesus. 
How this relieves the anxious, burdened mind of 
the poor sinner ! He comes to God in the imputed 
righteousness of Him who stood in his place as a sin- 
offering. 

And in another letter : " I am glad you are inter- 
ested with the subject of the priestdood — it is im- 
mensely wide. Think of the 'spiritual sacrifices' we 
are to offer as God's holy and royal priesthood, ren- 
dered acceptable as they are l by Jesus Christ,' our 
■ great High Priest.' ' Present your bodies a ' living 
sacrifice' — is not that a remarkable expression \ A 
lamb, when once offered, was dead ; but we are to 
go on offering our bodies, to be consumed in the 
flame of love continually — the sacrifice of one's 
whole life ! And don't you think we are to offer 
our talents, and time, and money, and affections as 
' spiritual sacrifices,' to be burnt or consumed on the 
altar of Christ's body, i.e., His members on earth, 
that they may daily ascend as a sweet savour to God 
by Christ Jesus V 

One of her anxieties she calmed thus — the words 

occur in a note to the Hon. Mrs. C , dated Nov. 

3 (1851): "I have been gathering comfort lately 
from a marginal reading the 139th Psalm. I don't 
know whether it may have struck you ; but, in con- 
nexion with a view which is sometimes taken, that 
verses 14-16 refer to the mystical body of Jesus, it 
is very interesting, I think. ' Thine eyes did see my 
substance, yet being imperfect ; and in thy book all 



238 MEMOIR OF A L . HlWIOI. 

my members were written, what days they should be 
fashioned, when as vet there was none of them.' Is 
it not a nice verse to think of, when one is anxious 
about any one as to their spiritual condition, if their 
conversion seems to be very long delayed ] each 
member of the body being fashioned in the day 
which is written in God's book!" 

And she adds : " I do indeed feel, as you say, that 
such thoughts are overwhelming to our finite minds, 
connected as they are with regions unexplored almost 
by the most matured faith. Yet the little glimpses 
of heavenly light which come down, like the rays of 
the sun behind a cloud, upon our earthly hearts, are 
very sweet. They seem to tell of a light which we 
are not yet ' able to bear.' " 

This life's brief hour is our infancy ; our manhood 
is in the age to come : but the sapling is now receiv- 
ing its bent. 

" Character groweth day by day, and all things aid in its 

unfolding. " 

Feeling the overwhelming weight of this fact, Ade- 
laide writes, Xov. 17, thus : " Has it ever struck you, 
in reading Revelation, how each of the songs which 
are there recorded as sung ty the saints in glory, 
refers to their own specific characters and discipline 
on earth \ For example — the song of the twenty- 
four elders and four living creatures, in Rev. v. 9, 10, 
on the opening of the seven-sealed book (which must, 
I think, refer to some part of Christ's redeeming 
work ; and the context leads me to conclude it must 



A FRESH GLIMPSE. 239 

be the redemption of this earth). Then the song of 
the countless multitude, in ch. vii. 9, 10. And the 
s>i)g of iLe 144,000 'redeemed from the earth,' in 
ch. xiv. 1-5. And the song of the victors over the 
beast, in ch. xv. 2-4. And in ch. xix., the united 
voices of the heavenly throng, ' saying, Alleluia.' 
Don't you think it gives immense interest to each 
day's existence here, to see how the character of our 
praises hereafter will be connected with it ? May 
Jesus be ever present with your spirit, and give you 
sweet foretastes of the fellowship which you are to 
enjoy with Him through all eternity ! And may 
His mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you 
moment by moment till you - enter into peace' — the 
desired haven !" 

The person of Christ continued to be the centre 
of her heart's desires. " I was so delighted," she 
writes, Xov. 28, in allusion to Ezek. i., " with the 
way it ends, pointing to ' the appearance of a man' 
as the very centre of all the glory, and Himself the 
i brightness' of the glory ! Are you not delighted 
when you catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus in a passage 
of the Old Testament where you had not seen Him 
before ? It seems as if the Spirit were actually 
engaged with us in showing us something more of 
Him." 

And, indicating another of the Lord's ways, she 
writes : How long it sometimes takes to answer 
piayer ! and how unlikely the several steps seem to 
be, by which it is answered ! It was the case of 
Israel in Exod. ii. and hi., which struck me so much 



240 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

They cried, and their cry came up unto God, at the 
very time of their distress (Exod. ii. 23-25) ; and 
He seems at once to have spoken to Moses about it, 
saying, ' I have surely seen the affliction of my 
people which are in Egypt,' and I am come down 
to deliver them.' (Exod. iii. 7, 8.) And yet, in 
the first instance, they could not have had the least 
idea that God was answering them ; for He only 
spoke to Moses, and Moses was in another land. 
Then Moses caused a delay by his unbelief, so that 
the Israelites did not get the assurance that their 
cries had been heard until the end of the fourth 
chapter. Then after that, instead of immediate de- 
liverance, their bondage was actually increased ; and 
when God again assured Moses that He would fulfil 
all His promises to them, in ch. vi. 1-8, they were 
so bowed down with ' anguish of spirit and cruel 
bondage' that they could not believe it svas true. It 
gave them no comfort whatever, and their misery 
altoo-ether seemed immenselv increased. Then Pha- 
raoh was another great hindrance, and again and 
again God gave him i respite' — all which must have 
been exceedingly difficult to the Israelites to under- 
stand. Surely it must have been a very great trial 
of faith, and one which must have lasted some 
months, as far as I can make it out, though the 
number of days is not always specified as to the 
length of the plagues, &c. And yet God was in fact 
answering their prayer all that time, was He not ? 
And at last the deliverance really came, and at * the 



THE RA\ t EaS. 241 

set time' — 'at the end of the 430 )ears, even the 
self-same day.' " 

To a fellow-pilgrim who seemed near her home 
she writes, Dec. 4 (1851) : " I do not feel as if I 
could bear to think of losing you ; but I would like 
to lose my will in God's. The thought of your be- 
ing ' w r ith the Lord' is too bright to make one wish 
to detain any one down here in such a world of 
darkness, ruin, curse, and death. But to know the 
sovereignty of God's unalterable purpose silences 
many wishes. Each link in the chain has its own 
right place. Those words in Joshua i. 11 are so 
precious — ' Within three days ye shall pass over 
this Jordan !' The limited, fore-ordained, fixed 
time ; the safe passage over ; the certainty of enter- 
ing Canaan ; and the fact of its being God's gift — 
are all so sweetly brought out ; and I like the 
thought too so very much of the three days' prepa- 
ration — lodging on the borders of Canaan in such 
composure, whilst, in leaving Egypt, they had to be 
in such haste." 

For some time back, she had forwarded to a dear 
friend fortnightly a paper of " texts for each day." 
Writing, on Dec. 12 (1851), with the texts for the 
two last weeks of the year, she says : " Sometimes 
I hope I have been permitted to bring you daily 
food in the desert, as the ravens fed Elijah ; and if 
so, I am thankful for the privilege, and shall be more 
thankful if I am allowed still to minister to you as 
long as you are in an earthly tabernacle to need it. 
How different it will be when ' the Lamb which is 
21 



242 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON'. 

in the midst of the throne' feeds you, and leads you 
\j the living fountains of water in heaven ! Then 
ft will be indeed true that our ' warfare is accom- 
plished' as well as that our iniquity is pardoned. 
And I am sure you must often look forward to the 
day when the fight of faith shall be over, and you 
shall ' sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in 
the kingdom of heaven.' 

" I have seemed so weaiy of the conflict of late," 
she continues; "I am sure I should have f anted had 
I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in that 
land where all is life, and light, and glorious liberty. 
The humanity of Jesus has been verv comforting to 
think of; His calling us ' brethren,' and partaking of 
our very nature, owning us as His ' children.' I have 
done some texts on His ' trust' in God, from Heb. ii. 
13 ; and it seems as if it helped one exceedingly to 
see how He was upheld by the Spirit just as we are. 
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold. I have put my 
Spirit upon Him.' 

" I met," she proceeds, " with a new thought the 
other day. I found it stated that the word rendered 
4 bruise,' in Gen. hi. 15, is literally, 'to overwhelm 
with darkness, or with a tempest.' It is the same 
word that is rendered ' darkness' in Ps. exxxix. 11 ; 
and it scarcely occurs anywhere else. If that pro- 
phecy were a looking forward to the darkness which 
covered the earth at the crucifixtion of Jesus ' for 
three hours,' how wonderfully it was fulfilled, being 
such a comparatively light thing to the ' outer dark- 
ness' into which Satan shall be (ast for ever and ever I 



PECULIAR AFFINITIES 243 

The one a bruising of the heel, but the other of the 
head ! The 2 2d Psalm shows so very beautifully how 
the darkness passed away from Jesus — from His soul 
as well as from external nature. And do you not 
think that the darkness — the ' horror of great dark- 
ness' — which fell upon Abraham before the burning 
lamp passed between his sacrifice, was a striking pre- 
figuring of the horrible darkness which fell upon 
Jesus, ere His soul was poured out unto death (He 
being Himself the sacrifice) ? 

'I think, if one may understand Gen. iii. 15 in 
this way," she adds, " it suggests a very precious 
thought also for all the members of 'Abraham's 
seed.' For it tells — does it not ? — that our bruising', 
our times of darkness, are but the sufferings of ' a 
little while V They shall pass away, and our songs 
of deliverance shall mingle with those of Jesus, when, 
in the midst of the congregation, He sings praises 
unto God. Do you remember a beautiful sentence 
of Owen's on Heb. ii. 12 — 'In the midst of the 
Church will I sing praises unto Thee V He says ; 
4 These words are taken from Ps. xxii. Most of the 
Psalm containetli the great conflict He had with. 
His sufferings, and the displeasure of God against sin 
declared therein. As He lands upon the shore, from 
that tempest wherein He was tossed in His passion, 
He cries out, " In the midst of the Church will I sing 
oraises unto Thee." ' " 

Too real to be imitative, she yet was drawn to 
certain saints by a very peculiar affinity. " Have 
you seen the Memoirs of Hewitson V she writes, 



244 MEMOIR OF A. L . NEWTON. 

Dec. 26. "I never read a book which I enjoyed or 
entered into so thoroughly. My mind is full of it. 
He so longed for close dealing with God." And, 
uttering her own soul's longing, she adds : " Oh ! it 
is indeed His own self I pant after. Fellowship — 
living, constant, intimate fellowship — with Him, is 
the cry He often hears from the desolate void of my 
unloving heart. How I do loathe the sin which 
makes the atmosphere so misty, the clouds so thick 
and dark ! I am now reading Deuteronomy, to see 
more of God's holiness and of the necessity for not 
sparing the darling lust. That is where I suffer such 
loss." 

Another feature of her own maturing life, she de- 
scribes thus : " Oh ! I do so intensely enter into what 
you say of the deeper experience of riper years as so 
much more abiding than the brighter experience of 
the babes of Christ. Lambs frisk and play ; for they 
have nothing to do but enjoy themselves. But how 
different when they become sheep, and have to 
travail in birth and to feed their young? Is it not a 
true picture of Christ's fold ? I could not at all tell 
you how I have been made to feel lately that this 
later and riper experience is coming upon me, and 
the earlier and former and more lio-htsome kind 
passing away. I have so felt other people's sins, and 
seemed so identified with my family, the house, the 
parish, the congregation ! I feel as if I must make 
confession of all their sins for them. I believe it is 
precious experience ; for it is Christ-like, is it not ?" 

Her health this winter occasioned her not a little 



SERVICE. 245 

inward conflict. " Oh ! to be more swallowed up 
and absorbed in Jesus !" she writes, Dec. 26 ; " then 
I should be more content with His dealings, of what- 
ever kind they might be. I do so much feel the 
truth of all you say about our personal and individual 
dealings with God alone — the work hidden from 
every eye but His. My body often keeps down my 
spirit. Well as I now am to all appearance, I have 
many a weary day or night, and frequently such 
restless uneasiness, without actual pain, that it is no 
wonder tome that the inner man is often greatly bur- 
dened and oppressed. But it is all so i well,' that I 
cannot be thankful enough." 

Another year closes upon our pilgrim, and leaves 
her still in the wilderness. Labouring like one who 
feels the preciousness of the short hour, she writes^ 
Dec. 29 (1851): "I esteem it such a privilege to 
minister to the members of Christ's body militant 
here on earth, especially as the time shortens. I have 
been so stirred up with the state of this large parish, 
that I have got a poor man to go about among the 
poor in the evenings for me, hoping to lead some at 
least to Jesus. If you can lift up one prayerful 
thought for me and him and Christless souls here, I 
shall be most grateful. His ear is ' not heavv ' but 
open to our cry.' Go when we will and where we 
will, we find Him ever listening." 

And on Dec. 31, writing to the Hon. Mrs. C , 

she says : " May I send you Deut, i. 30, 31, for this 
season of the year. It has struck me so much, that 
New-year's day seems like a time for the Christian 
21* 



246 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to strengthen himself for the future by the review of 
all the past — of all that took place ' in Egypt,' and 
t in the wilderness,' until ' we came into this place.' 
What confidence we are exhorted to place in God- 
Dread not !' (v. 29)." 

il Our times are in thy hand, 

Father, we wish them there ; 
Our life, our souls, our all we leave 
Entirely to thy care. 

" Our times are in thy hand, 

Why should we doubt or fear ? 
A father's hand will never cause 
His child a needless tear. 

4 Our times are in thy hand, 
Jesus the Crucified ! 
The hand our many sins had pierced 
Is now our guard and guide. 

" Our times are in thy hand ; 
We 'd always trust in thee, 
Till we have left this weary land, 
And all thy glory see." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

"How T should like her portrait," writes one of 
Adelaide's most intimate friends, " with her open 
Bible in her hands, as it always used to be, and all 
the energies of her penetrating mind digging deep for 
its unsearchable riches — now bringing up a bit of the 
precious ore with such delight as another bright 
addition to her store, and now surveying with increas- 
ing joy all she had already got ! No Memoir could 
be in the least faithful which did not throw a strong 
light upon the peculiar way in which she lived upon 
the Bible. And this resulted, I think, from that fea- 
ture in her character which led her to sift so inde- 
fatigably every subject into which she cared to in- 
quire. Grasping the whole plan of salvation, and 
settled and established in it immoveably, she fixed 
her eye steadily on God ; and to know Him was all 
.ier desire. On that subject she was insatiable — 
•sver exploring His word to find Him out, ever track- 
ing His mind ; and thence arose those ardent long- 
ings to be wholly absorbed in Him. The study of 
Jesus — His thoughts as perfect man, His mind as 
God — occupied her almost continually; and so richly 
was she repaid in these researches, that there were 



248 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

seasons when her soul was so filled with a J oration 
at the discoveries opened up to her, that, for a time, 
they seemed to extinguish temptation and loave her 
free to delight herself in God. 

"Then, again," continues her friend, "there was a 
reverse side to this picture — when this very study 
would open the flood-gates of temptation and raise 
strong conflicts within. She could not bear to feel 
she had any thought which did not seem to harmon- 
ize perfectly with the mind of Him she worshipped. 
She was not satisfied to assent, to believe, and to 
leave deep matters ; she felt assured it was ti.e privi- 
lege of the child of God to enter into full, unrestrict- 
ed, entire conformity of thought, wish, will, and pur- 
pose to the Divine mind — and this through union 
with Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit. She 
seemed so well to know when He was taking of the 
things of Jesus and showing them to her, or when her 
own mind was at work. Her spirit could find no rest 
when she found herself in a state only to acquiesce in 
any word of God : she wanted to go along with it ; 
and, if the hindrance to her doing so arose from im- 
perfectly understanding it, she ceased not to ask, to 
knock, to seek ! Oh ! how diligently did she spread 
her sails, how patiently did she wait for the precious 
gales of the Spirit, to carry her into that presence, 
without which existence was really a burden to her ! 

" You can understand, then, I am sure," her friend 
adds, " how this world — this life, in the common ac- 
ceptation of the word, was nothing to her. Xor was 
it any temptation. Her's was, if I may so express 



DIARY. 249 

mvself, altogether a spiritual warfare ; and she found 
hardly any one who could understand her. The 
conversation of Christians generally was a positive 
trial to her. She used to say to me, ( While they are 
talking around me, I am occupied with singing and 
making melody to the Lord in my heart. I can talk 
to Him, and I can hear His " still, small voice." ' 
"But, equally, when she did meet with those whose 
sympathies were in unison with hers, her commu- 
nion with them was of the purest, most elevated de- 
scription, and her enjoyment of the highest degree. 
Her method of searching the Scriptures will be seen 
in her papers, and will show how she loved to har- 
monize all the plans of God and bring out their wis- 
dom, beauty, and glory, as a faint reflection of Him- 
self. This appears to me to have been the leading 
turn of her mind." 

The writer of these lines (the Hon. Mrs. C ) 

was one of the very few by whom dear Adelaide felt 

that she was understood. "Mrs C is my prime 

friend," she writes ; " I could not tell how I delight 
in her. I have spent nearly three weeks with her at 

D both the two last summers. She is such a 

Bible-Christian ! We used to talk about it for hours 
together." 

In her brief Diary the year opens thus : "Jan., 
1852. — 'The poor committeth himself unto thee.' 
(Ps. x. 14.) What better can I do with myself this 
year ? ! I am poor and needy.'' My whole self I 
would commit into my Father's hands, whether for 
life or death. His promise is, l The expectation of the 



250 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

poor shall not perish for ever.' (Ps. ix. 18 ; Isa. xlix. 
23 ; Ps. lxii. 45.)" 

And again : "Jan. 1. — 'Who, then, is willing to 
consecrate his service this day unto the Lord V (1 
Chron. xxix. 5.) And 1 Chron. xxix. 17 : fc Is it not 
my " Beloved" who speaks ? has He not seen a will- 
ing offering in His servant V Jan. 4, Sab. — ' Thou 
hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God.' 
(Deut. xxvi. 17.) I have, at His table — owning my- 
self His, and that He is mine, before a great congre- 
gation on earth, and before angels — good and bad — 
and before the Triune Jehovah. Jan. 19. — The open- 
ing day of the school at Mickleover. Oh, that it 
may be the letting down of the net to catch a multi- 
tude of fishes !" 

And, later: "Feb. 1. — Again fed at the Lord's 
Table, remembering Him who is still absent. Feb. 

8. — Heard Mr. on Gen. i. 2. Alas ! the waters 

of baptism spoilt it all to me ! March 15. — Vestry 
meeting from St. Alkmund's Schools ; we each sent 
£50. May Jesus own and bless it! April 3. — Saw 

dear Maria W . She spoke of Jesus and the 

Father making their abode with us, and told me Dr. 
M k Xeile's sermon was a blessing to many Christians. 
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul !' April 9, Good Friday. 

— Heard Mr. on John xix. 30. A precious 

service. Did not Jesus rejoice to be so remembered 
on earth ?" 

These jottings indicate not uncertainly dear Ade- 
laide's daily life. " She fixed her eye," as her friend 
so truly says, " steadily on God ; and to know Him 



LFE A BUSINESS. 251 

was all her desire." Rarely has any one more 
"ardently longed to be wholly absorbed in Him." 
But it was not a mystic pietism. Her life, as we 
have seen, was one unceasing "living sacrifice." 
Poor Herbert once sighed — 

" Oh ! that I were an orange-tree, 
That busy plant ! 
Then should I ever laden be, 

And never want 
Some fruit for Him that dressed me." 

Adelaide Newton did more than siffh. Life was with 

o 

her a business — a business for God. 

Her " strength" in doing and in suffering was 
" the joy of the Lord." Gazing not on the sun as 
reflected in the ever-varying waters, but on the sun 
in His steady march in the heavens — not on God as 
seen in the fitful surface of her own feelings, but on 
God as seen in the unchanging expanse of His Word 
— she learned to rejoice in Him continually, even 
amidst unceasing trials. " Did you not feel," she 
whites, for example, on Jan. 9 (1852), " as you looked 
at those texts, how much the past year's experience 
had deepened your interest in all that God is to 
you ? I seemed to feel it so much, as I was doing 
them — above all His long-suffering, and constancy, 
and unwavering loving-kindness. How t truly in Him 
there is ' no variableness, neither shadow of turn- 
ing P" 

Alluding one day to the words, "Prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband," she said, " Yes, it is 



Xl> Z MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

that ' preparation' which is now detaining us down 
here ; for no hammer can be heard in ' the city' — the 
preparing is done now." 

And another day, following out the same thought, 
she said : " I have been so struck with the Greek 
word in James v. 11, which we render 'patience.' 
It is literally ' to remain under.' Does it not give 
the exact idea of prolonged suffering ? How much 
we have to remain under — have Ave not ? Such a 
load of daily crosses and trials from which there is 
no escaping ! It often comforts me to think what it 
is preparing us for. Do you not think our work as 
well as our places in heaven will depend very much 
upon what we have been here educated and trained 
to do? Every day I think I connect earth and 
heaven more and more together, each event here 
being linked in with our happiness there." 

Her own " preparation" hastened forward. " The 
last few months," we find her writing at this period, 
" have made the greatest difference in me — I feel 
more than so many years older. I feel this so much, 
that I have sometimes wondered whether I was 
living my life in a small compass ; but it may not 
be so, and I am content to leave it." 

And again : " How little we know, when we begin 
to use the little talent or power we think we have, 
what use God intends to make of it ! I often think 
what winders will be revealed in the day when all 
the links in the chain become visible." 

Adelaide "overcame," not by going out of the 
world, but by witnessing for Christ in it. "I felt 



THE HOLY DOVE. 253 

sure you would have to go to to dinner," she 

writes ; ;i and I can well understand your preferring 
to be alone with Jesus ; but His ' go to nay brethren, 
is a word of command which must often send us 
as well as Mary, in a sense, away from Him — must 
it not ? But soon He will have us where He is for 
ever." 

Sending to a friend a new tract, she writes : "You 
see my pen cannot be still. I do hope this word 
may lead some Christless souls to get ready, ere the 
day shall banish them with all their works of dark- 
ness into the o-loom of eternal ni^ht." 

And she adds : " I send you the report of the 
Hospital. I have some hope of getting some good 
ladies about here to contribute. I don't like Mrs. 

's way of writing ; how can she call it ' the dear 

Hospital v My Bible is very precious to me just 
now. I have not seen Trench's book ; but I am sure 
I should like it. I am more rivetted by words in 
Scripture every day." 

Krummacher somewhere says, that if there be a 
spirit within us which can be at ease in the midst of 
defilement and can bear sin, we may be sure that 
that spirit is not the holy Dove. A dove has been 
known to flutter and tremble at the very sight of a 
hawk's or of a falcon's feather. " Nothing strikes 
me more," Adelaide writes (Jan. 12, 1852), " as year 
-after year rolls on, than the wondrous forbearance 
of such a God of holiness with such a world of sin. 
Oh ! how intensely of late I have groaned under this 
world's sin and ungodliness ! Words could not tell 
22 



254 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

it." And again : " I have another tract which I 
think of printing ere long, on the i Purging of the 
Floor.' (Matt. iii. 13.) What a prospect that is to 
look onward to — ' He will thoroughly purge His 
floor!' I cannot tell how deeply I have entered 
lately into passages which show how the earth will 
be cleared of all its abominations when Jesus comes 
— swept with the besom of destruction." 

Growing in sympathy with Him who wept over 
sinners, she writes : " My heart is often so heavy 
that the wheels drag slowly over the ground. I 
seem quite unable to forget the unpardoned sin which 
is sinking so many into hell, and the unconfessed sin 
which keeps so many believers at such a distance 
from ])eace and joy in Jesus." 

And sympathizing also with Jesus in His joyful 
anticipation of the coming "rest," she writes, some 
days later, thus : " Yesterday I did so enjoy Heb. iv. 
— the 'rests' of God and of His people. TVhat a 
sweet subject for a Sabbath down here — a pledge 
and foretaste of the Sabbath which ' remains !' I am 
sure Owen's explanation of the ' rest' stops far short 
of the truth, because he sees in it nothing beyond 
the Gospel-rest for Christians. I have been reading 
a good deal of Horsley lately, and was so struck 
with one passage, where the Hebrew word for c rest' 
occurs in 2 Sam. xxiii, 7. Our translations says, 
' They shall be utterly burned with fire in the same 
place ;' but he says it should be ' In the Sabbath (the 
4 rest ) they shall be utterly burned with fire' — refer- 
ring noi- to the end of that which is burned, but to 



THE TWO RESTS. 255 

the end of all things, when they shall be utterly con- 
sumed out of the earth." 

And in another letter she says : " Did you ever 
notice how beautiful the meanings of the two He- 
brew words are for ' rest' quoted by St. Paul in Heb. 
iii. and iv. ? The one in the ninety-fifth Psalm is 
i Noah/ which Parkkurst defines as rest from toil and 
weariness — as the ark rested on Ararat after its toss- 
ings to and fro on the waters, or as the land had 
' rest from war' in the days of Joshua. The other 
word, quoted from Gen. ii. 2, is ' Sabbath,' literary 
cessation — i.e., rest (not from labour, but) because 
the work is finished. God rested, or ceased, because 
all was done. Does not this give an exquisite view 
of rest ? The two together seem to me to present 
such a perfect prospect for faith to rest itself upon. 
We shall have rest in the desired haven from all the 
toil of life ; and we shall enter into God's own 
rest, when He shall have made all things new ; and 
nothing will remain to be done to break His Sabbath 
of rest to all eternity. This latter kind of rest does 
seem so inexpressibly perfect — the whole creation 
sharing in it, as it did on the first Sabbath-day in 
Eden, and Jesus bringing into it all the blessings 
of His Sabbath-day (if I may so express it) when 
all His new creation work was ended, and a Triune 
God finding perfect and eternal satisfaction in that 
keeping of a Sabbath which remaineth to us His 
people." 

The " man in the picture" had his eyes lifted up 
to heaven. "After suffering dreadfully for a while 



256 MEMOIR OP A. L. NEWTON. 

by restraint in prayer," Adelaide writes, Jan. 24 
(1852), " for many weeks the constraint upon me 
has been to pray ; and much time has been spent in 
the attempt. As to the expression of prayer, it has 
been a mere nothing ; but I have found the greatest 
strength in those words, ( He that searcheth the 
heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,' 
which, I suppose, refers to the groanings which 
could find no vent in utterance or outward expres- 
sion. If so, are not these inward ' groanings' (for 
no other word half expresses it) the very things which 
the Spirit is working in us, and which, after all, con- 
stitute the truest prayer ? The grand point where I 
fall short is, that I go away so often without any 
consciousness of getting what I ask for. Hewitson 
said he never went to bed without knowing with 
4 absolute confidence' that his sins were forgiven, 
because he believed in God's truthfulness when He 
said, ' If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins.' " 

And, somewhat later, she writes : " It is remark- 
able, that, since I wrote to you, two very dear friends 
have been dreadfully tried of late, in not being able 
to express anything in prayer. This restraint is 
very painful in one way ; but, do you know, just 
very lately I have seemed to feel as if mv ffroanino-s 
spoke more than my words. Words are not needed 
to God. He reads the mind of the Spirit in us ; — 
how much that means ! I only want to be filled 
with desires, and they shall be fulfilled. I have 
been thinking how every wish of our renewed hearts 



MATURING H E A V E N L I N E S S . 25 7 

is summed np in those words, ' Thy will be done P 
What is not included of good in our Father's will ?" 

And again : " Do you enter much into prophetic 
study ? You will see what a sweetly refreshing acid 
sustaining subject it was to Hewiston. It is so much 
more the thought of seeing Jesus, than of any of the 
accompanying circumstances, which I love to think 
of, that I value my tract as likely, I hope, to call at- 
tention to the subject. I know it is ; the living 
Person,' as Hewiston so often says, that we need to 
come in contact with, if we are to be lively Chris- 
tians. Don't you often pant for better fellowship with 
Him r 

A lesson of her maturing heavenliness she notes 
graphically thus: " Deuteronomy strikes me most as 
the book which instructs the true Israel of God as to 
their condition ; in the land.' I take it to be a stage 
beyond the wilderness — beyond even the conquests 
of the book of Joshua. It is not the first taking pos- 
session, so much as the unflinching yielding up of 
the whole heart; and life to God in after-experience. 

It does so condemn me, dearest , from page to 

page, that I almost shrink from saving what I seem 
to see in it : nought of the ' cursed thino; cleaving 3 
to one's hand — the cities of the enemy burnt to the 
ground, and all the spoil, every whit — the diligent, 
careful hearkening to God's words, and the holy 
obedience and truthfulness required — and then, too, 
the rejoicing even before the Lord, and the intense 
holiness which the whole atmosphere of the entire 

book seems to breathe. Altogether it makes one 
o 9 -a- 



258 MEMOIR OF A . L . XEWTOX. 

breathless, if you understand rne, to be in so pure an 
air. I think it is not studied by Christians as it de- 
serves. "We should be saved out of such mixture 
with the unholy and unclean, if we saw our true 
standing l in the land.' " 

And, writing to one " very near the entrance into 
glory," she says: " How beautiful Deut. i. 25 is — 
the spies going into the land, and bringing some of 
its fruits, to show to others what a good land it is ! 
May not this be great reason why you have been de- 
tained so long in the body, that, having spied much 
of its fruitlessness, you might tell of it to me and to 
many, many others V And again : " Don't you 
think the 'garment of praise' is a very essential part 
of a Christian's clothing, and becomes so more and 
more as he draws nearer to the society of those who 
stand around the throne with harps of gold and cease 
from anything but praise ? 

Si ' Then we shall sing more sweet, more loud; 
And Christ shall be the song.' " 

And to the same, some weeks later : " I scarcely 
imagine you look much at the waves of trouble now. 
Are you not occupied with Him most, who walks 
upon them and whispers in your ear, c It is I V I 
feel, more and more, that it is in proportion as we 
come personally and individually into contact with 
the living person of Jesus, that the work in the inner 
man grows in depth and in reality. I often think of 
you as just on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, 



TOILING. 259 

receiving the finishing strokes of the great Architect's 
hammer." 

A similar experience she indicates in another let- 
ter, thus : " I have been struck to-day with Mark vi. 
48 — Jesus looking on whilst His disciples were 'toil- 
ing in rowing' on the sea, and He Himself was on 
the land ; and, though He saw them, yet He went 
not to them until the fourth watch of the night. 
And even then He would have passed by them. 
Don't you think we may gather from incidental re- 
marks of this kind how much less our mere enjoy- 
ment or relief from trouble is His object than it is 
ours ? His thoughts are so very much higher than 
ours in all these ways ; He seems so often to be re- 
presented as looking on while His people are suffer- 
ing, yet not brino-ino* relief for some time, like Israel 
in Egypt — 'I have seen, I have seen.' It has oc- 
curred to me lately that these words could almost 
convey the impression that his own heart of love had 
been wrung with anguish with what He had seen (if 
one may speak of Him in language so human), as 
if He could not speak strongly enough of what He 
had seen. And yet how long it was, after that, ere 
they were finally rescued ! It often wants David's 
kind of waiting in ' waiting,' does it not ? (Ps. xL 1, 
margin.) But they who wait on Him shall not be 
ashamed. 

Some interesting touches of character come out 
indirectly in a letter' to another friend, dated Jan. 

26 : "I own I should be glad if the could 

leave ; it is evidently so utterly unsuited to 



260 MEMOIR OP A. L. NEWTON. 



What a very singular experience theirs has 



been in the Christian life ! I felt greatly interested 

and truly sorry for Mrs. ; for her whole tone of 

mind seemed to me so unhealthy. I think both 
sisters want Christian society to call them out of 

themselves ; and that they cannot have at . 

They want spiritual vigour and spiritual strength ; 
but there is much to love in them, and they were 
most kind to me." 

" I have heard no more of Mr. ," she adds ; 

" but I am sorry if I slandered him. He is one of 
the Lord's chosen vessels ; and I would not be 
guilty of breaking off even a little bit of the orna- 
mental chiselling, by throwing even a small stone at 
him. I need not throw stones at others. Enough — 
oh, how much more than enough ! — for me, if I 
look at the beam in my own eye. And how it blinds 
and distorts my powers of seeing others aright ! One 
thing I do hope my heavenly Father is teaching me, 
and that is, to loathe and abhor myself. I would sink 
deeper and deeper still, that Christ may get all the 
glory of what His grace does in and by me, and that 
' yet not V may ever be my motto. I have been more 
and more delighted with 'Hewitson' each time I have 
read it — and I h ave gone through it three times, and 
read the greater part four times. Oh, how closely he 
walked with God ! His mind so exactly suits mine; 
it is more interesting to me than even M'Cheyne's 
Memoir. I grieve to hear of your illness, though I 
am sure it is a token of your being led more alone 
with Jesus. I cannot give you the least idea how I 



JOY UNSPEAKABLE. 261 

liave been dragged out of my happy 'solitude of 
experience,' as I called it long ago, not so much by 
going amongst strangers again, as by being made 
to feel identified with those around me, and with 
* the Church (which is His body).' Do you know 
much of confessing sin for others ? It has been my 
constant occupation lately. Oh, how sin does afflict 
me ! I need only hear of it or see it, and my own 
spirit is wounded and darkened." 

Some other features are given elsewhere. For 
example, on February 4, she writes: "Your kind 
note did me great good, because it was so full of 
Jesus. I am so thankful you are so happy in Him. 
Surely you need not fear to indulge in enjoying 
Him with joy unspeakable. He is leading you into 
green pastures, and making you to lie down beside 
the still waters ; and he means it to be a sweet time 
of refreshment, does He not ? I suspect we should 
enjoy those opportunities while they last ; for we are 
soon enough called back into scenes of conflict." 

And to Mrs. C W : " I value all your 

experience so much, when you review your long 
life and tell me how you feel now. It is deeply, 
deeply humbling to look back on what we have 
sought to do to Him ; it is, as you say, so spoilt 
with sin, even in our holiest things. I have deeply 
felt it lately; and I suppose it must be my expe- 
rience, more and more, as I go onward. Dear Mr. 
Evans ! how he felt it ! But he had naturally one 
of those very powerful minds which feel everything 
in an intense way. It makes the i Memoir exceed 



262 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

ingly precious to me. His deep views of sin, and 
his proportionally deep appreciation of the efficiency 
of the blood of Jesus to wash it away, give such 
fulness of meaning to his words. I am so o-lad vou 
have got ' Hewitson ;' it has been a precious book 
indeed to me. He walked in the secret of the Lord's 
presence, under the eye of the same holy God as 
Evans did; and his faith was so very simple that 
he did not linger about the threshold, but entered 
into Jesus (as he expressed it) and lived upon His 
breath !" 

" I cannot tell you," she continues, " how much 

and often I think of you, dearest Mrs. W , in 

that foreign, distant land. But 

" 'What are distance, time, and place, 
To the God that fills all space?' 

I am most thankful, if you are suffering less bodily 
and enjoying much of the felt presence of Jesus. I 
love to believe that He has accepted all the unripe 
fruit of earlier days, and now looks to the ' fruits of 
the valley' in His ripening children. I often wish 
that advanced believers were less cast down bv their 
dews of what they are ; but I suppose this is a part 
of those fruits which belong to ' the valley,' which I 
am still too younp; and too unripe to yield to the 
Lord. May He find in His gardens fruit which is 
sweet to His taste, whether we admire it or not." 

Her health this winter continued stationary. " I 
am keeping up very wonderfully," she says. " I 
don't suppose people can see any difference in me ; 



OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES. 263 

but I keep up outwardly at great cost sometimes, 
However, the trials I have I cannot ask to be with- 
out ; for it is through them the gold is purified from 
its dross." 

Her friend has remarked, in the paragraphs quoted 
in the beginning of this chapter, that " she seemed to 
know r so well when the Spirit was taking of the 
things of Christ and showing them to her, and when 
her own mind only was at work." An illustration 

occurs in a letter to the Hon. Mrs. C , Feb. 2 ; 

"I am so glad you have enjoyed part of Heb. ii. ; it 
was very sweet to myself in doing it, for it seemed to 
be given me — and you know what that is. I think I 
am now getting into the third chapter a little ; but 
it often seems to me as if God kept me waiting now, 
until He has made me feel entirely without one 
thought, before He begins to teach me. It is ex- 
ceedingly humbling to feel that I have made this ne- 
cessary." 

And she adds : " How very, very different Chris- 
tian experience is, when acted upon by different out- 
ward circumstances ! It seems to me impossible that 
one's friends should be able to know and make allow- 
ance for these changes : and that makes the omni- 
science of God so unutterably precious ; for He can 
— and one can go to Him with such confidence in 
this knowledge far exceeding even our own ! He 
knows the mind of His Spirit in us, when all seems 
to us in a maze." 

In the same letter another thought occurs, which 
throws not a little light upon her own intense friend- 



264 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

ships. Alluding to Mr. Evans, she says : " I scarcely 
think his letters equal his sermons ; but they reveal 
to me much of the secret of his being so useful and 
so beloved — at least, / trace much of it to his intense 
way of entering into the specific circumstances of his 
friends. He does not deal in general, commonplace 
remarks, but enters with minuteness and touching 
sympathy into each person's peculiar state of mind 
or body. And don't you think this tells powerfully 
on a man's ministry, as well as in more private life ? 
It is a faint reflection of that individual contact with 
God in each and every circumstance of life, which 
makes the reality of religion so precious. I think 
the only person I ever knew carry it out as Evans 

seems to me to do, is Dr. . He never lets you 

feel that he is indifferent about you. I marvelled 
once at his sympathy with a weak-minded friend of 
ours at Torquay, who fretted about the death of a pet 
bird till every one else laughed at her. And Jesus 
condescends to sympathize in all our tiny daily vex- 
ations, as well as in our great troubles. ! for a 
heart of love like His !" 

Each saint in glory, as he remembers all the ways 
of the Lord towards him, shall exclaim, in adoring 
thankfulness, " Thy gentleness hath made me great !" 
Dear Adelaide keenly felt the so-frequent lack of this 
Christ-like gentleness. " He preached a sermon on 
Sunday morning," she says, alluding to a preacher 
whom she had heard, " on 4 How long halt ye V It 
was very powerful — I might say overpowering, for I 
could scarcely bear it. Had it been combined with 



the lord's vineyard. 265 

the tenderness and gentleness which such a subject 
required, it would have been enough to break the 
hearts of many : but there was a hardness about it 
which made it very painful to me. Oh ! how unlike 
Jesus we are in our feelings towards hardened sin- 
ners !" 

Amidst the langour and fatigue of " many a weary 
hour," she still resolutely laboured for her Lord. 
"Don't think any more of my outer man," she says, 
Feb. 3 (1852) : " it is intended to perish in due time ; 
and I really try to do my duty towards it while it 
lasts. We are but strangers, at best, down here ; 
and often earth seems desolate to me, though I have 
so much to be thankful for and to make me happy. 
My time is very fully occupied ; and that forbids the 
indulgence of sad and gloom v thoughts. I love to 
think that we are here for a little while, with pre- 
cious opportunities of sowing seed which may here- 
after add immensely to our harvest of joy in glory. 
This is often a great motive with me, to stir me up ; 
for I feel that I am losing not only present comfort, 
but eternal enjoyment, when I trifle or sin away my 
time. You have two precious little souls to train for 
eternity, which must occupy most of your time. I 
have only to work in other ways as best I can ; but 
I never find lack of work to be done in the Lord's 
vineyard." 

23 



CHAPTER XYII. 

Tersteegen describes, as " a real stratagem in the 
inward conflict," the " occupation of the heart with 
God." It is like a child (he says) which, at the 
sight of a dog, flees to its mother, and, instead of 
fi^htino- with him, hides itself with confidence in her 
lap 

Dear Adelaide was daily learning this M stratagem." 
More and more intensely her soul went out upon 
God. U I do so love," we find her writing, Feb. 15 
(1852), " to think of each day's events as just the 
developement of His eternal plan, all coming to pas? 
in perfect order, perfect harmony, and not one thing 
hurried over or out of place. Don't you feel more 
and more that it is Jesus Himself, His own glorious 
Person, that is everything and everybody to you ? 
ISTow we truly see through a glass darkly ; yet 
glimpses, through the lattice of Him we love, are 
very, very precious on our way Home." 

" To think," she adds, " how soon we may see 
Him — { see Him as He is !' and then be like Him ! 
c One thing have I desired of the Lord, to behold the 
beauty of the Lord.' His beauty ! what a sight it 
will be then for us to gaze upon ! and what a sight 



SOFT WHISPERS. 267 

it is to faith now ! I am sometimes discouraged 
'because of the way,' and sometimes because of 
inward conflict and innate depravity ; but one sight 
of Him, or one sensible grasp of His hand, quite 
seems to lift one up. Is not that wonderful — 'Thou 
hast holden me by Thy right hand V like a friend 
taking us by the hand, or like a father holding his 
child by the hand ! ' His hands are as gold rings,' 
enclosing us !" 

And in another letter, she says : " There has 
been something wrong about me lately ; I have not 
enjoyed the fellowship I have sometimes done with 
the Father and the Son. I think it must have been 
1 the lust of other things entering in,' which has 
choked up the avenue, as it were, betwixt my soul 
and Jesus, and has hindered the soft whispers of His 
Spirit from falling on my ear. I am trying to confess 
and forsake the sin, whatever it is, and to return 
unto my resting-place in the bosom of Jesus." 

It may be imagined with what feelings one who 
thus lived upon the kernel regarded the teaching 
which exalts the shell. " Xever can I forget yester- 
day," she writes, Feb. 9, to Mrs. C W : 

" You can scarcely conceive what I felt, in the midst 
of what would otherwise have been a very good 

sermon from Mr. , on the Spirit moving upon 

the face of the waters (Gen. i. 2), to hear him come 
out with the waters of baptism, and, while ho 
strongly denied baptismal regeneration, yet to as 
strongly affirm that, where there was no conversion, 
there was still a great benefit conferred in the doing 



268 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEW I O 8 . 

away of original sin ! ! ! This ho also partly unsaid ; 
but I really don't know how, for I felt so stunned 
that I retreated behind a pillar in the corner of the 
pew, and only entreated that the stream of deadly 
poison might not flow on through the congregation, 
and that the dishonour done to the blood, which 
ulone can take away sin, might be forgiven. I don't 
know what to do ; it has wounded me to the quick. 
[ feel, do you know, just as if I had been thrown into 
a dungeon like Jeremiah, surrounded with filthiness 
in this fallen world, from which there is no escape 
until the word is given, l Come up higher !' " Do 
Christian men, whose trumpet, in this matter, gives 
so uncertain a sound, know how grievously they 
wound some of the holiest of the saints ? It is no 
light matter to " offend one of these little ones." 

Knowing how " tender" are the " grapes" of the 
living Vine, she was ever on the alert to " take the 
little foxes" which " spoil it." " The very fact of 
doing His work," she writes, M is often a great snare. 
I do so intensely feel the need of incessant loatchful- 
ness. You know my thoughts upon the difference 
betwixt this and self-examination ; and I cannot tell 
you how experience deepens them. I would be 
always watching : then I should be perpetually 
looking, and walking ' in the light.' I want to be 
as an empty vessel, ever being filled from above with 
the rich droppings of the showers of God's blessings. 
I suspect my great success in the Lord's vineyard has 
tended to make me feel and act as though there were 
a spring of living water in myself, instead of every 



SINAITIC INSCRIPTIONS. 269 

drop being to be derived from the Fountain of living 
waters above. Don't you understand the sort of 
thing I mean ? It is to be self-emptied, self-abased 
— it is self-renunciation and self-denial which my 
soul now seems to need, in order that Jesus may 
reign there and fill it." 

And, in the same letter, she adds : — " You still 
speak of wanting to know more of the liberty of 
God's children ; and I believe my danger has been 
from feeling it so strongly as to be tempted by the 
ever-busy Evil One to abuse it by a less careful walk. 

Oh ! dearest L , what a straight and narrow way 

it is ! and yet how inconceivably rich, and free, and 
complete, and satisfying our portion is ' in the Lord !' 
To plead His blood, and have not a single stain of 
guilt imputed to us ; to plead His righteousness, and 
be clothed in raiment so white and pure, that God's 
eye admires our beauty ; to stand, in fact, ' complete 
in Him,' and c accepted in the Beloved ;' what can be 
more blessed?" 

Earnestly alive to whatever concerned the Word, 
we find her writing thus : " Have you met with 
Forster's work on the ' Sinaitic Inscriptions ' ? How 
intensely interesting it is ! To think of Israel's wan- 
derings being read upon the rocks, after the lapse of 
so many centuries ! Do you not think that it is very 
remarkable that the decypherment should have taken 
place just when Infidelity is growing so formidable ? 
And how very fearful the growth of Infidelity is ! 
I am sure the only safety, in these days, is in keep- 
ing close to the Word. I scarcely think a greater 
23* . 



2 V MEMOIR OF A. L . X E W T X . 

work can be done in the Lord's vineyard than in 
leading people deeper into its treasures. The pure 
gold makes the world's dross useless." 

And, alluding to one of her own Bible-searching, 
she writes, in another letter : " Have you ever par- 
ticularly studied the 10th of Genesis ? It is so inte- 
resting, as givin gone a key to much of the ending 
of things in Revelation. In Genesis, we have the 
buds of those blossoms which in Revelation have 
ripened into full, ripe fruit. For example, the mean- 
ing of the word Babylon, or Babel — ' confusion, or 
mixture' — throws such meaning into Rev. xvii. 1, 2, 
15-18, and xviii. 2, 3. How plainly it shows that 
God's mind has read the chapter of its histoiy with 
but one opinion, horn the beginning to the end !" 

On Feb. 20 (1852), she writes to another, thus: 
" I have been able, of late, to say very little to any 
one but God. In that verse — ' My soul, wait thou 
only upon God, for my expectation is from Him' — 
what remarkable solitariness there is betwixt God 
and the believer, is there not ? May I send you 1 1 

will be to you a God' f X read your letter to a 

very nice, poor man, who is dying, and he seemed 
quite to drink it in, saying, in the middle of it, 'Yes, 
Jesus is very near — quite close to me.' It is. indeed, 
when earthly stays are taken from us, that the Lord 
becomes, as you say, everything to us. Will you 
sometimes breathe a thought into the ear of Jesus 
for me ?" 

To a " beloved Persis," in humble life, whose fel- 
lowship was very pleasant to her, she writes : u Will 



271 

you get your half-holiday on Thursday, and give aa 
much as you possibly can to me ? You can't come 
too early ; and, oh ! may Jesus bring such a blessing 
with you as shall make us both cry out — ■ Stay me 
with flagons, comfort me with aoples, for I am sick 
of love P My text for you is John vi. 57. How full 
of life it is ! 'As the living Father hath sent me, 
and I live by the (living) Father, so he that eateth 
me (the living Bread), even he shall live by me.' I 
do so love to think that Jesus is no longer the cruci- 
fied One, no longer buried in the grave ; but, ' rather,' 
that He is risen again, exalted, seated at the right 

hand of the Majesty on high. Dear M , does it 

not raise you above the level of earthly trials, to feel 
your life hid in Him up there — ■ in God ? ' " 

And to the same, on Feb. 25 : " Will you oblige 
me by using the enclosed to give yourself fires in 
your bedroom during this severe weather ? For the 
sake of your dear brother, do be persuaded to take 
care of your own body, remembering that it is dear 
to Jesus, for He has bought it at no small price. A 
new house is so dangerous in such weather : but 
there is One who cares for you, who will doubtless 
take care of you in it. My wish for you shall be 

what dear Mr. C asked for us one winter at 

Torquay — that the rooms may be always lighted up 
with the sunshine of His presence. I can't tell you 

how I enjoy seeing you, dear M , What will 

heaven be, to have Jesus Himself, and all dear to 
Him and dear to us, to be around us for ever !" 

Another of her maturing experiences she indicates, 



272 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

March 3, thus ; "Pride is peculiarly devilish, and it 
is where I think Satan gets great advantage over me. 
But there have been times, lately, when I sank into 
the most abject nothingness before God. ISo words 
can utter the feelings of moments like these ; they 
are lessons which, as you most truly say, one must 
learn for one's self. I do feel how much there is to 
learn : it seems to be a feeling which grows very 
much on Christians, I think ; one seems so increas- 
ingly to pant after more intimacy with Jesus — and 
that must, of course, involve oneness of mind and 
feeling with Him. And, oh ! what a suffering life 
His was down here ! Xothino- has been more im- 
pressed on me lately than this : and all I have to 
learn out of suffering I feel more and more comes so 
infinitely short of what He felt. His experience in 
the Psalms is truly marvellous ; and painful as one's 
own experience so often is, when one really feels 
what the Psalms say, I still do think it is positively 
comforting to know it is ' fellowship 5 with Jesus." 

And still another feature of that deepening expe- 
rience she notes : "I have been peculiarly tried by 
the sins of others. At every turn I see or hear 
something which I know must grieve ' the Spirit of 
holiness,' and am for ever joining myself in doing the 
same things along with others ; and sometimes the 
sins of believers, and sometimes the sins of those 
who quite set our Lord at nought, seem as if they 
would crush me, Oh ! is it not like going under a 
wheel full of iron spikes, to be made to hear unholy 
things said of One so dear as Jesus ? But if we feel 



the lord's plants. 273 

it, how infinitely more cutting it must have been to 
Him ! Oh ! what words those are — ' I am the song 
of the drunkard !' To think of Jesus hearing Him- 
self on the lips, of a drunken man, whilst He had 
come down from the realms of eternal purity to res- 
cue us sinners by His blood ! But I cannot say in 
words what such thoughts as these lead one to — 
language seems to fail one completely." 

One day, in conversation with a deeply tried friend, 
she said — " Don't we fail, as Christians, in not seeino- 
all our sufferings to be a faint reflection of Christ's ? 
I don't think we half believe that He really had the 
feelings of sadness, of distress, of inward desolate- 
ness, which He had and which we have. And yet I 
believe that when we are tried, the truest comfort 
and strength are derived from seeing our trials to be 
a participation of His." 

And, writing to another, she says : " Have you ever 
read 'Payson's Memoir' ? I don't wonder at Hewit- 
son's love for it. Is it not very interesting to you 
to watch the different ways in which the Lord trains 
His plants, especially those which are to bear much 
fruit ? I like looking through memoirs, just to see 
this. The Memoir of J. H. Evans suits me exactly 
just now : his was such deep experience ; but I 
feel throughout his memoir the lack of that bright- 
ness which the hope of the Lord's coming gives, 
and which lights up Hewitson's Memoir with such 
brilliancy." 

And she adds : " How kind it is of you to think 
of me ! It is the love of Jesus running through you 



274 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

from His own heart. All you have told me of Mr 
Krause is most precious. I do increasingly love to 
hear of God's dealings with. His children ; it has 
seemed .ately to tell me so much of Himself. How 
suddenlj he was admitted into the presence of his 
long-loved Master ! I wonder how soon all the 
Lots will be taken out of Sodom. A closer walk 
with Him is what I want so much. I almost always 
seem at a little distance from Him. Oh ! when shall 
the clouds of sin be for ever dispelled by the un- 
clouded sunshine of His presence in glory everlast- 
ing ?" 

In her own genial and touching way she writes, 
March 9 (1852), to her humble friend, thus: "Truly 
my heart often longs for communion with yours ; and 
I believe I should often have written, had I not been 
so sad. I am certain it is chiefly bodily depression; 
but do pray for me, will you ? that the light of the 
beaming countenance of Jesus may shine on me and 
gladden me. I hope He shines on you. Will you 
accept this little hyacinth ? It does not smell so sweet 
as it should do ; but I think it will shed a sweeter 
fragrance in your house than in our's. It is white, 
and I know you like wdiite flowers — they remind you 
of the spotless purity of Him in whose 'white rai- 
ment' you are arrayed. Oh ! how we feel the need 
of our being clothed in our white, blood-washed robes, 
when w r e would enter into 'the holiest' to appear 
under the very eye of our heart-searching, rein-trying, 
holy, holy, holy God !" 

The " sadness" here named she alludes to in another 



THE KINGDOM. 21 5 

letter : " I have felt so unable lately to think, or read, 
or love, or pray, that it has been rather a dreary time 
with me ; but how thankful I ought to be that I have 
had no doubts about being a child of God ! Don't 
you think a negative state toward God is far better 
than anything positively evil, in contact with the Evil 
One ? At least, when one is feeble, it is very tender 
dealing to be shielded from the attacks of the ' roar- 
ing lion' — is it not ? I should be very unhappy about 
myself, only that I am really sure it is physical in- 
firmity which makes me so unable to feel ; and I be- 
lieve it is a thorn in the flesh which is sent expressly 
to humble me, so that I almost value it whilst it 
grieves me." 

Turning from herself and her experience to Christ 
and His experience, she writes, March 19 : "Bead- 
ing Mark xiv., and comparing it with Luke xxii., I 
have been so exceedingly struck with the way in 
which thoughts of ' the Kingdom' seemed to fill His 
mind, as He drew nearer to His greatest sufferings. 
In this, Psalms xxii., lxix., and cii. are perfectly 
parallel ; the extremest sufferings and the brightest 
glory seem brought close together. And has it 
struck you how increasingly ' the Kingdom' seemed 
to occupy Him as He drew near to it — so that He 
spent the forty days after His resurrection chiefly (I 
suppose) ' in speaking of the things pertaining to the 
Kingdom ?' " 

A kindred thought is given in another letter, 
thus : "Do you remember that day when dear 
Mr C first gave us the Lord's Supper together, 



27 6 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

and H B was with us ? It has struck me 

lately, in thinking of Melchizedec, that his bringing 
forth l bread and wine' to Abraham after his victory 
is a remarkable foreshadowing of the day when Christ 
will, in a certain sense, exchange His priestly work 
for His royal character, and, when all His enemies 
are put down, He enters on His reign of righteous- 
ness and peace, and fulfils His word in Luke xxii. 
16-18: 4 I will not any more eat thereof, until it 
be fulfilled in the kingdom of God,' and 'I will not 
drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of 
God shall come.' Do you not think that the typical 
character of Melchizedec throws light upon those 
difficult words ? Until this connecting them with 
Melchizedech's royal priesthood struck me, I never 
felt to have a glimpse of light as to their true mean- 
ing." 

Another of the experiences of the Man of Sorrows 
she alludes to elsewhere : " How intensely wonder- 
ful the sympathy of Jesus is in all the varied suffer- 
ings of this life — is it not ? How wonderful the 
tears He shed over Lazarus, the inward groanings of 
His troubled spirit, the bitter trial of finding no one 
who could go all lengths with Him in what He felt ! 
Have you noticed in Luke xxii., that it was in the 
supper-chamber, on His last night on earth, and 
when they must bave been round the very table 
where they had just been partaking of the outward 
symbols of His lowest degradation, that the disciples 
began to contend and strive about which should be 
the greatest ? I think it must have been .so deeplv 



"a place by me." 277 

painful to Jesus on that last night to witness it, and 
so trying to Him to hear their ' strife.' To rae there 
is something so exquis'telv painful in hearing a sharp 
contention about anything; so, what must it hare 
been to Him ?" 

Once more in the sunshine, her face again shone. 
" Have you noticed," she writes, " those four won- 
derful words (Exod. xxxiii. 21) — 'A place by me?' 
Is it not, of all places on the earth, the place one 
would choose to be in above every other ? And I 
think there is something so striking in the thought 
of the Holy One placing the sinner by His side ! 
But it is all explained by its being ' in the cleft of 
the Rock' — ' that Hock is Christ.' I am thankful to 
tell you I have been permitted to spend many happy 
days lately, as if with Jesus — His Word has been so 
precious to me, and Himself so dear. I shall never 
be near enough to Him till I am actually with Him. 
I am so glad you are feeling these intense desires 
after Him : is it not like the parched earth waiting 
on Him for showers of rain ? And it shall come, 
1 in its season.' But we have surely got the earnest 
already in our desires for it." 

In a house she was visiting one day, she met a 
German governess, to whom she spoke kindly of the 
" great salvation." " I found her," she writes, April 
28, " a simple-minded young creature, anxious to be 
a Christian, yet hardly knowing how. She had been 

with a clergyman at , before she came there ; 

but when I asked her if they were Christian people 

she had been with, she said she really did not know 

24 



27 3 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

— they were called so, but they did not seem to live 
as the Bible would make Christians live, and she 
could not well understand who were Christians and 
who were not ! Oh ! how it did make me feel 
ashamed of our traitor-like character !" 

And to another : " Thinking this morning of you 
and your troubles, that verse occurred to me — ' I will 
bring the blind by a way which they know not.' 
(Isa. xlii. 16.) I was supposing a father with several 
blind children, leading them through the streets of 
London. Is it not a fit illustration of our heavenly 
Father's leading of us through this trackless world ? 
and does not everything depend on the confidence 
we feel in the baud which is leading us ? Oh ! 
how safe we are, though blind and utterly unable to 
see our way through the crowd of harassing events 
surrounding us !" 

And to an old schoolfellow : " One thing lately 
has so pre-occupied my mind that I have left nearly 
everything for it ; it has been a craving after inter- 
course with God Himself, which nothing less could 
satisfy — and 1 like to spend my time on my knees as 
much as I can. I can't call it praying, but ' waiting 
upon God,' as it were : and then, with the Bible 
open before me, it is almost as if He Himself were 
personally present, saying the words — they seem so 
really to come from Him. Oh ! to be present with 
the Lord ! what bliss it will be !" 

The Bible's adaptedness to our manifold neces- 
sities she was ever delighting to exhibit. " Is it not 
very beautiful," she w T rites, " to see Job (chapter xix, 



"redemption." 279 

25-27) taking that particular view of bis Redeemer 
which was most exactly suited to his own case? 
His body being so afflicted, and so much the cause 
of his suffering, it seems to me as if he were given 
to look onward in faith to the l day' when it should 
be ' redeemed,' and so purified that in it he should 
see God ! Paul, again, in writing of c redemption' 
when one might imagine him to have been in health, 
speaks of ' waiting for the redemption of the body' 
rather in connexion with the renewal of 'creation.' 
Don't you think there is an interesting distinction 
betwixt the two states of mind, just arising from the 
different outward circumstances P? And she adds : 

"How wonderful it is, dear , that I may call 

myself your sister in and through that 'Redeemer,' 
our kinsman — is it not ? May you enjoy much 
sweet intercourse with Him, in holy intimacy with 
Him, in that character 1" 

And, on May 2 7 (1852), she appeals to another 
thus : " You say you are ' in wretched spirits :' what, 
then, shall I say to comfort and cheer you i Why, 
of all things, I know nothing so comforting or so de- 
lightfully cheering as to look up above all the chang- 
ing scenes of this changing life, to the serenity, and 
beauty, and exquisite glories of the world to come, 
where nothing needs change because all is perfect 
and satisfactory, and so good that it cannot be made 
better ! Look up there, till your eyes are so rivetted 
that you forget the toil, and tumult, and din of Lon- 
don ; and, what is better still, look till you are 
1 changed from glory to glory.' Has it ever struck 



280 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON, 

you that transformation of character actually takes 
place by t beholding glory?' I don't believe we have 
any idea of the effect which ' looking' with the eyes 
of our mind has upon us. May you experience the 
relief of such a ' look,' for the cure of all the wretch- 
edness of your spirits !" 

And, on July 8, she writes : " I have had some 

long and happy talks lately with Mr. G : he is 

like one who has nearly passed through his Sion- 
ward journey. It is seldom one can meet with such 
ripened and matured Christians ; and I found ' a rest 
in my spirit' with him which I have not known 
since I was at Torquay ; no, nor even there, for I 
was comparatively young in experience myself then. 
You will say, So I am now ; and it is true : and yet 
I often feel as if I had been long enough on the 
borders of eternity to have learned a good deal since 
then. Oh ! what a difference that makes ! Yv 7 as 
your illness dangerous ? I am so interested in know- 
ing how others feel when they think they are near 
Home, especially if they are turned back again a little 
longer to sojourn in the wilderness." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

In a garden near Milan, in the spring of 372, a 
young man lay one morning under a fig-tree, moan- 
ing and bathed in tears. " Take and read !" cried a 
voice to him from a neighboring house — " Take and 
read ! take and read !" A neglected Bible flashed 
upon his soul ; and he hastened to a friend with whom 
a short while before he had left a roll of Paul's 
Epistles. " I seized the roll," says he, describing the 
scene, " and read in silence the chapter on which ray 
eye first alighted, the thirteenth of Romans. ' Put 
ye on' it said, in closing, ' the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts 
thereof.' I did not want to read any more ; nor 
was there any need — every doubt was banished." 
Augustine, from that hour, was on the Lord's side. 
"A passage of God's Word," says Gaussen, alluding 
to the occasion, " had kindled that glorious lu- 
minary which was to enlighten the Church for ten 
centuries, and whose beams gladden her even to the 
present day." 

The same Word was Augustine's daily joy. And 
in the measure in which he was a Bible-Christian, he 
grew in the knowledge of God and in the graces of 
the life of God. 

24* 



282 MEMOIR OF A . L . N E W TON. 

Adelaide Newton also owed to that Word her daily 
growth in heavenliness. Talking one day about the 
words, "Whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He 
speak," she quoted the passage — "The Spirit searcheth 
all things, yea, the deep things of God," and added : 
" Don't you think there is not a truth of God He 
cannot lead us into, if only we were able to bear it ? 
I have been so struck with the thought of His 
searching out these things. And the word," she 
continued, " seems to imply it : it is, ' to trace, to in- 
vestigate, to explore' — as if He delighted to explore 
the infinite depths of His own eternal mind, and then 
reveal them to us !" 

Here is the Bible-student in her chamber. " I 
often feel inclined to smile," she writes, July 15 
(1852), "at my sofa, with a Hebrew Bible and 
Lexicon at one side, a Greek Testament and Lexicon 
at the other, and one or two English Bibles always 
about it, too. I long only more and more to make 
my Bible the study of my life. Precious little vol- 
ume ! what wonders it reveals !" 

And a farther glimpse into the chamber is given 
elsewhere : " I am left alone just now. I enjoy the 
quiet solitude so much, often not seeing any one for 
hours together — 

" * His Omnipresence my sweet company.' 

I am fancying you all solitary and bereft of visible 
creature-society. But you are at least surrounded by 
three Friends, who can look at you, and converse 
with you, and make your heart burn with intenser 



SOLITUDE. 283 

joy than ever you felt with a creature -friend. Like 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the Son of 
God, you may be in the furnace ; but you have three 
Divine Persons with you there ! they were — three 
human and One Divine." 

And in another letter, she writes : " Is your mind 
enjoying any special portion of the Word just now? 
I am like a bee, gathering in something which is very 
4 sweet to my taste,' as I roam about in the Lord's 
rich pastures, yet knowing nothing of the science of 
the plants I am feasting on, nor able, during my short 
span of life, to explore the yet unknown fields of 
delight which even the Word of God could reveal to 
me. Still I am almost entirely occupied with it ; and 
I think I can truly say, ' His fruit is pleasant to my 
taste.' " 

An attack this summer, when on a visit to D , 

again reminded her of the frailness of the tenure 
which kept her on this mortal scene. It came in the 
form of an overwhelming prostration. u I cannot 
say I am much better yet," she writes, on her return 
home ; " nor do I at all understand myself. No one 
has found out here that I am not as well as ever ; and 
I cannot tell them." 

Dear Adelaide's religion was not an exotic, living 
m the solitude and in the sick-chamber, bnt unable 
to face the world's rough winds. Before her first ill- 
ness, and again during the last two years of compar- 
ative health, it had proved itself a hardy plant. And 
if, in the sequel, we find her, amidst the privacy and 
the sharpness of new sufferings, adorned with a new 



284 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

holiness, it is only a new phase of that inner life ^hich 
had already been nurtured so abundantly and so ten- 
derly by the divine Husbandman. 

" Such sharpness shows the sweetest Friend ; 
Such cuttings rather heal than rend ; 
And such beginnings touch their end." 

On Aug. 7 (1852), she writes: "My body is a 
very great burden to my spirit. When shall it be 
changed for one like that of Jesus 1 May He reveal 
much of Himself to you hour by hour ! Hebrews 
has been interesting me exceedingly. I am thinking 
just now of chap. ii. 10 : there is such a depth of 
meaning, that I am utterly lost in it ; but if it were 
fit in God to perfect our Leader through suffering, 
of course His followers must be led along the same 
pathway." And again : " Oh ! how I long for a 
near place in the Body (of which we are the mem- 
bers) to the heart of Jesus ! that every pulse might 
beat in close unison with His ! that I might always 
move in that precise direction in which the Head 
designed !" 

And a few weeks later, she says : " I am so de- 
lighting just now in those precious words — • Surely, 
I come quickly.' Does it not make your heart throb 
with holy joy to think how soon Jesus may come, 
and fetch us all to be His bride for ever ? There will 
be no more little irritating vexations, and no more 
of these greater tribulations, then. And God's es- 
timate of the time which has to elapse first is so 
comforting. Sevan times within four verses (John 



GODS "MAXIFOLD" GRACE. 285 

xvi. 16-19), the Lord repeats the words, 'A little 
while.' And then that text (Rev. xxi. 6) — ' And He 
said unto rue, It is done " does it not convey the 
idea that God Himself T\as rejoicing in the comple- 
tion of His work ? and if so, don't you think it is a 
great source of sustaining comfort to a tried believer, 
to see each day's trials as the successive steps lead- 
ing on to that blessed consummation ?" 

Alluding to two friends who had visited her, she 
thus delineates God's u manifold" grace : " I am 
sadly afraid you did not get the spiritual refreshment 
or strength which you hoped for. I never like those 
large parties ; and you had not even the quiet hour 
with him which I had. He was, beyond anything, 
delightful when I was alone with him : he talked 
to me of Christ, and gave Him such true pre-emi- 
nence. He was so calm 2nd subdued, and yet so 
brilliantly happy ; it was like sunshine to have him 
in my room. In fact, he so perfectly enchants me, 
that I am glad to have the disappointed feeling in 
him, that in some of the deepest feelings of my heart 

he has no sympathy. Just where sympathises 

so deeply he seems a stranger to the path I have, in 
my measure, trodden. And the reverse is equally 
true — where the one is depressed and unable to soar, 
the other calmly, yet with the truest magnificence, 
seems to me to dwell. Is not this the creature dwelt 
in by the Saviour, who shines forth in each through 
different mediums ? And are not we deeply taught 
by each to love Him in them as streams of living 
water, yet not the Fountain ?" 



286 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

The Jew and his vacant Land could not fail to 
engage the thoughts and sympathies of one who so 
earnestly pondered the Word. "I really do not 
wish to trouble you to write," she says, in a letter to 

Colonel G , "unless you can tell us anything 

about the chosen people, so dear to the heart of 
God that they ought to be dear to us. All you tell 
me of their present state and feelings is deeply inter- 
esting. I am glad, too, that you still purpose to 
publish your Tour. I cannot express how my heart 
responded to your remark, that God ever checks 
human impatience and keeps us waiting. Sometimes 
■ an horror of great darkness' creeps over me, when 
I think of all that is involved in Israel's restoration ; 
but the 'end' is 'peace, and not evil,' and we must 
keep our eye fixed on that." 

Another subject also occupied her thoughts at 
this period. " Egypt," she writes, " has rather been 
dividing my thoughts with Jerusalem. I felt that 
Forster's decypherments, if true, were so important 
in the cause of truth, that, having Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics within reach at the Derby Museum, I 
resolved to test them, as far as I could, for myself. 
I studied Forster's £ Pharaonic Alphabet' very care* 
fully before I w r ent to look at the mummy ; and you 
may readily imagine my delight on instantly recog- 
nizing the identical characters upon its back, in two 
long inscriptions. I copied them on the spot, and 
afterwards sent a copy to Mr. Forster, with each 
letter of the inscription put side by side with what I 
believed to be the corresponding English letter. Mr. 



EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS. 287 

Forster says I have 'read, the characters with the 
greatest accuracy, and enabled him to give a full 
decyphernient of them.' " 

And, some months later, writing to the Rev. Mr. 
Forster, she says : " The eager interest with which 
I read your most kind letter, with its accompanying 
decypherments, you can probably imagine, but I 
could not attempt to express. I never anticipated 
so much success in my endeavours to ascertain for 
myself the truth of your decypherments. I hope 
you were satisfied when you saw the bustard. But 
the point which has most weight with me is, that I 
should have fixed upon the only unknown hiero- 
glyphic in either inscription which was not a letter, 
as the one which thoroughly puzzled me. I think 
this is immensely conclusive, in favour of the truth 
of your alphabet. You do not need such proofs for 
yourself; but, for a stranger to have met with such 
success, is an important, independent testimony — is 
it not ? You are perfectly at liberty to make any 
use you like of my drawing, provided you say nothing 
of me." 

In the same letter, she gives another specimen of 
her researches, thus : " I was looking out some words 
in Exod. xxviii., when I came to the ' pomegranate,' 
and when I saw, to mv great delight, that the Hebrew 
word is tigp — so like raman, that I hoped I might 
find something agreeing with vour decvpherment in 
the tablet from . Osiris. Is it not singular, that 
Parkhurst should give this definition of the root 
n&n — l To cast, throw, project ;' in Kal — e to cast or 



288 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

throw into some calamity or evil ;' ' to throw into 
some disagreeable situation or circumstances, by 
deceit and fraud. In fraudem impellere aut injicere, 
to deceive, cheat, throw, or fling' ? In that inscrip- 
tion you gave the word ' wahar,' as l casting a man 
into something from which he cannot get out ;' and 
' the words immediately preceding the word raman, 
were ' dissembling,' and ' an accuser, or deceiver.' 
So that the Hebrew root suggests the very ideas 
actually to be found in words surrounding the picto- 
rial representations of the ' pomegranate tree !' " 

And, a few days afterwards, Mr. Forster replies : 
" I have to thank you very cordially for your last let- 
ter, and for its highly valuable confirmation of my 
renderings of the inscriptions surrounding the picture 
of the Fall. The sense of the root rmi, which you 
adduce from the Hebrew lexicons, is indeed most im 
portant ; for, while it independently corroborates my 
versions of the adjacent terms, it shows anew the 
close affinity betwixt the Hebrew and Arabic, and 
supplies a valuable correction of a grave error of the 
lexicographers." 

And, in April, 1853, she writes : " I need scarcely 
say with wdiat pleasure I am anticipating the third 
part of the l Primeval Language.' The subject grows 
in interest every day ; but I have regretted my in- 
ability through illness to pursue my own investiga- 
tions of it." 

These scattered fragments of a very full corres- 
pondence are given, not for their subject-matter, but 
as another specimen of Adelaide's earnest zeal in pro- 



GROWING IN HE A. VENL. NESS. 289 

securing any inquiry which engaged her. The hiero 
glyphics we find her " studying almost day and night, 
the subject taking entire possession of her." It was 
not, however, to indulge a mere intellectual taste, 
but, as she tells us, " because it bore upon God's 
truth," and because she was " convinced that these 
are days when everything connected with the East is 
of vast importance." 

Meanwhile she grew in heavenliness. " The stream 
runs past," she writes to an afflicted friend at Tor- 
quay ; " and, I dare say, you often come within sight 
of the harbour now. But if you, and I, and others, 
are bid to tarry here to dispense the food which Je- 
sus would give to save the lives of those who ' perish 
with hunger,' w^e may well do so with gladsome 
hearts. To be hid in God with Christ seems to me 
the very highest possible pitch of exaltation ! — and 
yet this is our privilege now ; and hereafter, when 
Christ 4 appears,' so shall we ' appear,' — to display to 
angels, and principalities, and powers, the manifold 
wisdom of our God ! They shall see why your life 
is still prolonged — don't you think? — and wonder 
and adore the depth of the riches of His wisdom and 
knowledge" 

And her eye was still fixed on God. " May I send 
you to-day," she writes, " this verse from the 139th 
Psalm : ' How precious also are thy thoughts unto 
me, O God ! how great is the sum of them !' There 
is such a striking contrast in that Psalm betwixt the 
felt poverty of our thoughts of God and the rich pro- 
fusion of His thoughts of us ! And just the sam? 
25 . 



290 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

of His knowledge of us, contrasted with our in- 
ability to know Him. ' Thou hast known me ; thou 
knowest my downsittiug and mine uprising. Thou 
understandest my thoughts afar off.' l Such know- 
ledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot 
attain unto it.' This only we seem able to say ; and 
don't you think there is felt relief in saying it — ' Mar- 
vellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth 
light well V "We know and feel how little we can 
know of the unsearchable greatness of our God. But 
is it not indeed ' precious' to be assured that His 
thoughts of us are more in ' number than the sand V 
How ' very great' it makes one feel He is ! I often 
feel now so overwhelmed with thoughts like these, 
and how impossible it is to say anything to Him or 
of Him, that I am quite dumb." 

And in another letter : " I had a very happy, sol- 
emn time last night. Only I am almost overwhelm- 
ed with the immensity of God's greatness and the 
sense of my own insignificance ; — all that I can do 
seems such child's play ! I am such a mere speck — 
such an infinite atom — in creation ! Surely Chris- 
tians must be driven soon to make greater sacrifices 
in doing the Lord's work before He comes." 

The conversation turned one day upon u the very 
close connexion betwixt the joys of heaven and the 
joys of earth." 

" Will not there be," said a friend, " a distinct 
calling to remembrance there of the things done in 
the body ? Every one is said to ' receive the things 
done in the body !' " 



THE " DAYLIGHT OF ETERXITY." 291 

" Yes," said dear Adelaide ; " and don't von think it 
seems the great principle on which God has ever 
acted, to produce an increase of good through the 
permission of evil or trouble ? I was so struck with 
this last night," she proceeded, " in looking for the 
Hebrew of Isa. lxv. 17, c new heavens,' and the Greek 
of Rev. xxi. 5, ' I will make all things new.' In both 
the word has the sense of 'renovation ;' and our glo- 
rified bodies coming out of these bodies of humiliation 
— life cut of death — glory out of afflictions (as in 2 Cor. 
iv. 17), all seem to tell the same thing — do they not V 

Another day, talking with a friend who was cast 
down by seeing little fruit, she said : " But in the 
broad daylight of eternity you will know (what you 
cannot well know now) how often God has spoken 
through you words in season to the weary — the very 
work which He instructed Jesus how to do ! (Isa. 1. 
4.) Oh, how precious it is," she added, "to have any 
kind of fellowship with Him !" 

And on another occasion, conversing with a much- 
tried disciple, she said : " Don't you find the feeling 
grows upon you, that very few words are necessary 
in speaking to the Lord ? He reads each thought ; 
and as one realizes this more, don't you think it 
takes off very much of what, in earlier experience, 
one might call the burden of prayer ? Does not it 
turn it rather into fellowship and continual breathing 
in the spirit of prayer ? — and that, you know, is so 
different from the set speaking of certain seasons. I 
can't express exactly what I mean ; but it is like 
thinking all one's thoughts aloud in His presence, 



292 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Oh, for more of it ! Oh, to have no silent moments 
towards God !" 

Martin Luther, in his Will, wrote : " Lord God, I 
thank thee that thou hast been pleased to make me a 
poor and indigent man upon earth. I have neither 
house, nor land, nor money, to leave behind me." 
Dear Adelaide was enabled, with a like " thankful- 
ness," to rejoice in her peculiar discipline. " I have 
just been reading," she writes, " c Sickness ; its Trials 

and Blessings,' by 's recommendation ; and I 

have been telling her that, sound and useful as the 
practical advice is, I cannot like the general tone of 
the book — it. breathes so little of the glorious liberty 
of the children, and so much of the Lard and severe 
bondage of obedience, making the * will of God' a 
thing to be submitted to rather than loved. The 
writer seems to me to have sought support more 
through the Church than through Jesus. Oh, how 
tenderly He sympathizes ! and how completely it is 
in fellowship with Him that we learn to bear, and 
suffer, and endure unto the end !" 

And she adds : " I do so feel the truth of what 
you said in your last, that it is the secret guiding of 
His eye, and the discipline of one's spirit moment by 
moment, which seems the reality of the work of 
grace. This has been very much brought to my 
mind by Ps. lxxi. 17, which is, literally, ' O God, 
Thou hast disciplined me from my youth.' The He- 
brew word is the same as that used for 4 a goad' for 
breaking in oxen. He has been unwearied ly training 
us from our youth until now : most truly you and I 



THANKFULNESS. 293 

can feel it has been so, can we not ? And may we 
not well repeat the constant prayer, as David did, 
' Teach me Thy statutes/ go on training me ? for it is 
the same word all through Ps. cxix., except in verses 
33 and 102, where teaching means rather guidance 
or direction in a right way or course of action. Then 
we need not complain or bemoan ourselves, like 
Ephraim, as bullocks untrained (or unaccustomed to 
the yoke), undisciplined, and wavward. The verse I 
should like to send you especiall} isPs.lxxi. 5, 'Thou 
art my hope, Lord God' (sign Ving, as in Eom. 
viii. 20, and in Phil i. 20, a stretching forth the 
head and neck, with earnest observation, to see when 
the person expected shall appear). Oh, for this long- 
ing after Jesus ! and surely it arises out of the words 
that follow, c Thou art my trust from my youth.' 
The object we have been clinging to, trusting in, and 
relying upon ! must we not long to see Him whom 
unseen we adore?" 

And, in another letter, she says : " I grieve for your 
uncomfortableness; but I am sure it is a proof of love. 
And that is a furnace which will do you no harm. 
Some time ago, I remember thinking that God was 
teaching me to justify Him in all His trying deal- 
ings ; but really of late this feeling has been changed 
for one of real thankfulness for each and every sor- 
row He sends me. It is the family-rod ; and I dare 
not ask to be the child that is not to have its way- 
wardness crushed and its will broken. So I thank 
Him for doing it ; and I thank Him for enabling me 
to kiss the rod." 

25* 



294 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWT OK. 

She continued to " watch for souls." Writing to 
a young friend who seemed to he " halting between 
two opinions," she says : " I did not know, till after 
you were gone home, that you were to be ; confirmed* 
to-morrow, or I am sure I could not have seen you 
without giving you a text, and telling you how very 
earnestly I wish that it may please God to draw you 
with the cords of love, and to make you i His child' 
to all eternity. A very dear girl, whom I knew at 
Torquay, was 'confirmed' a few weeks ago; and writ- 
ing to me beforehand, she said, ' Oh, what a happy 
day it will be, when I publicly declare my determin- 
ation to be a follower of that precious Jesus who 
gave Himself for me !' And when she wrote again 
to give an account of the day, she added, ' I was 
admitted to the privilege of partaking of the Lord's 
Supper. I seemed so fully to realize my acceptance 
in " The Beloved." In the midst of the pleasures I 
am expecting this summer, do pray for me that I 
may 

" ' Remember, in my gladness, 
'Tis His love gives me all.' " 

I only quote from her letters, instead of writing 
myself, because she says exactly the things I should 
like to say to you, and they come so much fresher in 
that way than if I were to seem to sermonize ! She 
lives with a young cousin who is very, very gay ; an 1 
therefore it is no easy thing for her to determine to 
be a decided Christian. But she loves Jesus heartily ; 
and what we love we find means to follow. This 
makes me earnestly desire for vou that the love of 



THE ONWARD JOURNEY. 295 

Jesus may take possession of your heart, and be what 
Dr. Chalmers called ' the great expulsive principle,' 
which drives everything else but Jesus out — the 
world, self, and everything. The text I should like 
to send you is Jer. 1. 5, and especially the words, ' a 
perpetual covenant,' I shall only add to all this, 
that, as far as my knowledge of religion goes, I can 
truly say I owe all my happiness to it, and believe it 
to be the happiest thing in the world. So I can hon- 
estly recommend it." 

Her onward journey brought with it new sorrows 
and new joys : 

" Like light and shade upon a waving field, 
Coursing each other, while the flying clouds 
ISTow hide and now reveal the sun." 

"Writing to one beloved friend, she says : " Those 
words, 4 The sorrows of my heart are enlarged,' have 
struck me so much this week as so truthfully giving 
expression to the experience of the advancing Chris- 
tian. Don't you think that each day seems to open 
up some new avenues of sorrow, as if it were con- 
tinually rinding some fresh channels in which to flow 
through our ploughed-up hearts ? And the far 
advanced Christian must find, both in the deeper 
views of his own sin, and in the fresh calls for sym- 
pathy with each new sinner he meets on the Sion- 
ward way, that the sorrows of his heart are enlarged 
and enlarging with every onward step he takes." 
And to another : " This morning I have been think- 
ing of those words in Ps. cxiv. 2, 3, ' Judah was His 



296 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. The sea saw it, 
and fled.' When the sea saw God in His people, it 
fled before them ! Does it not tell us that it is God 
in us which clears our way through the most im- 
penetrable obstacles, and that seas of trouble will flee 
before us when the presence of the Lord is manifested 
in us ?" 

And as she journeys onward, she is found clinging 
with a very peculiar love to certain fellow-pilgrims. 

" It is interesting to me," she writes to Mrs. C 

W , Oct. 25 (1852), " to hear you speak of your 

experience now. I am so struck with the humbling 
experience which those Christians who have lived 
actively for God get in the autumnal stage. There 
is something to me perfectly exquisite in the chas- 
tened and subdued spirit of an aged Christian. I 
wonder that I like it, when I am so unsubdued my- 
self : but I do ; and I only long to make them feel 
how 'the glory of the Lord' is seen upon them. 
(Isa. lx. 2.) I wish you knew how much your self- 
renunciation teaches me — you would scarcely mourn 
any more." 

In this region where she now journeys, another 
experience comes. " I have felt much more," she 
writes, Dec. 21 (1852), "of the Devil's presence and 
working of late than I ever did before. I seem to 
feel so much, especially, that lie is fighting with 
God, in every case of a sinner's resistance of Jesus." 
And in another letter : "I had a sharp conflict, 
some days ago, literally with the powers of darkness, 
but I can't help telling you how one text helped me 



A NEW YEAR. 297 

—it roust have been given to me — c Take the shield 
of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all 
the fiery darts of the wicked one.' It did seem to 
me so wonderful at that moment, that the fiery darts 
which one might almost say are lighted at hell's 
unquenchable fire, should be quenched, one after 
another, as they touch the shield of faith." 

And again : " The state of the world is painfully 
interesting. I cannot tell you how strongly I have 
felt lately the contest which is carrying on betwixt 
God and the devil, and the broad line of separation 
between the travellers to the One in heaven and those 
to the other in hell — the great end which everything 
is tending to. I seem as if I had no middle ground 
left me to stand upon ; and the realizing of this is 
immensely helpful in making you feel that you must 
act as on the Lord's side." 

Entering on a new year (1853), she writes in her 
Diary : " Began the year in the Lord's house on 
earth : is it a pledge of ending it in the house 
above ? Began it by commemorating Jesus' dying 
love. May that love be realized daily till time shall 
end ! 

" ' I want as a traveller to haste, 

Nor forethought nor anxious contrivance to waste, 
On the tent only pitched for a day.' " 

And, writing to a friend, she says : " May I send yont 
the words I have chosen for myself, as expressing my 
earnest longing for nearer communion with Jesus 
during the new vear — ' Let Him kiss me with the 



298 MEMOIR OF A. L. VEWTOI. 

kisses of His mouth' ? That is His drawing near to 
us — is it not ? — and in such a way as to make us feel 
His love, and know that He is manifesting Himself 
unto us as He doth not unto the world." And to 
another, on Jan. 7 : " Oh ! that the victoiy which 
Jesus hath wrought over death may banish every 
painful thought, and enable you. in holy fellowship 
of mind with Him, to make the present a time of 
triumphant joy to you !" 

Lighter occupations also were consecrated to God. 
" I have been painting in oils a little lately," she 
writes, " for a rest to my too active head, which can- 
not bear such constant thought. Yet it is very, very 
tempting to be always mentally at work." And. an- 
other day, she writes: "I have actually spent seven 
whole days on oil-painting, which I rind easier to me 
than water-colours. The first day I painted one 
pretty little picture of the Garden of Gethsemane. 
Then I did the Sinaitic Inscriptions, which took two 
days ; and I have done two others since. If I can 
only paint without self-gratification and self-exalta- 
tion, I think the talent may be turned to account." 
The talent was of no common order ; and the account 
to which she turned it, was to aid the Irish Missions 
and other Christian enterprises. 

As the season advanced, the weather u tried her a 
good deal. Living her such sleepless nights." " I can- 
not help looking on with adoring love," she writes, 
" at all God's dealings with me ; there is such an un- 
folding of His manifold wisdom in the mingling of 
joy and sorrow in them all. I can truthfully say, 



pi asy. 299 

that I would not now be without one needed stroke, 
or one hour of preparation for my place and work in 
the heavenly temple. 

" ' As hour after hour passeth by, 
Mark'd by its own peculiar joy or woe, 
"Which Jesus means should tell upon the heart ; 
Behind each hour, may some stroke be left, 
Made for eternity upon each living stone !' 

How miserable one would be rendered throughout 
eternity, if it were possible for us to escape some try- 
ing part of our discipline here, and so be admitted 
there with some hideous deformity which should mar 
our symmetry for ever ! But the house will be fin- 
ished in all its parts — is not that comforting ? even 
though years of preparation be still needed." 

In her Diary she writes: '"Feb. 27. Sun. — ; The 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all 
sin.' Another Sabbath at home ; read Job xix. I 
feel more sure than ever that the right thing is, to 
take each sin, the moment the conscience feels it, to 
the blood of Jesus, and, there having it l once 
purged/ to remember it ' no more.' I don't think 
of one scriptural example in which a forgiven sin was 
charged upon the conscience a second time by God ; 
and I suppose that the year's sins were never ex- 
pected to be again brought to mind after the scape- 
goat had borne them away into the land of forgetful- 
ness. Oh ! for grace to plunge into the ocean of 
Divine forgiveness !" 

And, somewhat later, she writes to a friend thus I 



300 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON, 

" I have had no time for any drawing since 1 
wrote you, save hieroglyphics ; but I hope to return 
to it some day, if I live still on this lower earth and 
have more time given me to trade with. If not, 1 
will gladly bid it all farewell, to go to Jesus. The 
world is in a most critical state ; yet how sleepy 
Christians are ! I almost ventured last night to ask 
for the ' north wind' to blow upon me ; but, at all 
events, I do exceedingly want the c south wind.' 
I'm afraid Jesus gets no sweet fragrance from His 
garden." 

The holy Rutherford once remarked, that " wo 
might beg ourselves rich, if we could but hold out 
our withered hands to Christ and learn to seek, ask 
and knock." Dear Adelaide was not a stranger to 
this heavenly art. "I have had such enjoyment," 
she writes, "in that Psalm (the ninety-ninth) — 'Wor- 
ship at His footstool ;' exalting Him, prostrating our- 
selves ; and then His holiness the great theme, 
thrice over c for He is holy !' Is it not like putting 
into our mouths on earth the very song which is 
sung in glory — c Holy, holy, holy V I cannot imag- 
ine any feeling so sweet as that of adoration ; it seems 
so to imply 

" ' A soul at leisure from itself 

to think of God ; His holiness filling, as it were, 
our souls, so as to banish, for the time, the bitter- 
ness of a view of our own sinfulness, and giving us 
the most intense happiness. It is but transient 
tastes of it which I get ; still I hope they are 



"all known to thee." 301 

earnests of the fulness of it when God ' tills His 
temple' so that sin can never enter to interrupt His 
worship." 

And the result was a cairn self-possessedness, even 
amidst increasing trials. "I must tell you," she 
writes again, " a word which was lighted up to me 
the other day by what you call 

" ' The light of affliction's fire.' 

It was a dark night-season with me, through some 
painful outward circumstances ; and oh ! how exqui- 
site that word of Jesus did seem to me, ' I am the 
bright and morning star !' I looked to the Greek 
word, and found it defined — ' lustrous, dazzling, shin- 
ing, resplendent ;' — the very darkness added to its 
brilliancy. And is it not so with Jesus ?" 

Meditating one day on those words, " When my 
spirit was overwhelmed within me, then Thou knew- 
est my path," she poured out her soul in these plain- 
tive lines : — 

" My G-od, whose gracious pity I may claim, 
Calling Thee 'Father,' sweet endearing name I 
The sufferings of this weak and weary frame, 

All. all are known to Thee. 

M From human eyes 'tis better to conceal 
Much that I suffer, much I hourly feel ; 
But oh ! this thought doth tranquillize and heal — 

All, all is known to Thee. 

" Nay, all by Thee is ordered, chosen, planned ; 
Each drop that fills my daily cup Thy hand 
Prescribes, for ills none else can understand : 

All, all are known to Thee. 
26 



302 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON, 

11 The fittest means to cure what I deplore ; 
In me Thy longed-for likeness to restore ; 
Self to dethrone, and let it rule no more ; — 

All, all are known to Thee. 

u Nor will the bitter draught distasteful prove, 
When I recal the Son of Thy dear love ; 
The cup Thou would'st not for our sake remove, 

That cup He drank for me ! 

1 And welcome, precious can His Spirit make 
My little drop of suffering for His sake : 
Father ! the cup I drink, the way I take ; 

All, all is known to Thee." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Wordsworth, in his "Excursion," speaks of a 
child, living on "a tract of inland ground," who 
applied to his ear " the convolutions of a smooth- 
lipped shell." 

(; In silence hushed, his very soul 
Listened intently ; and his countenance soon 
Brightened with joy ; for niurmurings from within 
"Were heard, sonorous cadences ! whereby 
To his belief the Monitor expressed 
Mysterious union with its native sea." 

Dear Adelaide is now approaching her heavenly- 
home. And as she nears it, her utterances sound in 
the ear of faith more and more accurately as the 
" cadences" of her " native sea." 

In her Diary, she writes: "March 20 (1853). 
Sun. Meditated on the land of Beulah — so sweet 
to pilgrims on the Sionward way." And in a letter : 
" Oh ! I do so want some more vivid piercing glances 
through the lattice ! Those words have been much 
on my mind for some days — l The eyes of the Lord 
run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show 
Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is 
perfect towards Him.' They 'run' — from Madeira, 



304 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

to Torquay, and to Derby, watching each, person ; 
and ' to and fro,' backwards and forwards ! it almost 
annihilates the sense of distance, does it not V 

And writing to another, also nearing home, she 
says : " I have been growing np into your expe- 
rience. I knew very little of conflict when I saw 
you, and very little comparatively of sin. The last 
year or two have taught me much ; and, painful as 
it has been, I see the value of learning it. The 
struggles of the inner man are so real — so entirely 
God-ward (for man sees them not), that one seems 
by degrees to learn out the value of life as it brings 
one into contact with the living God ! Oh ! how 
blessed it will be when it is all life, when death has 
1 no more dominion ? " 

And, in the same letter: "I have thought that 
hell and heaven don't occupy us enough. It does 
strike me so very much, in the experience of the few 
Christians I see and of the many I hear from, that 
there is such a tendency to rest in present expe- 
rience and in all the daily fluctuations and varia- 
tions, sins and infirmities, sorrows and trials, which, 
after all, acquire their real importance only through 
their connexion with eternity. There is, for the 
most part, comparatively little realization of the 
unseen — the ultimate carrying out of all these ' seen' 
things to their certain issue. I suppose it is expe- 
rience one must come to by degrees, just in pro- 
portion, indeed, as one nears the eternal realities 
themselves. The nearer one gets to heaven, the 
more vividly one sees what holiness is, and, as a 



FELLOWSHIP WITH JESUS. 305 

natural result, one feels the more what sin is and 
what it leads to in hell ; in short, it just comes to 
this, that we have more of the mind of Christ and 
see more in God's own light. And how entirely one- 
ness of heart with Him is what one sums up every 
desire of one's heart in, is it not ?" 

To another friend she writes : " Oh ! how I do 
long to live and walk in real personal fellowship 
with Jesus all the dav louo* ! It comforted me 
very much some days ago, in reading Matt, xxvi., to 
see how, even when Jesus was personally present, 
there were the very same interruptions to communion 
which we have now in spiritual things. Did it ever 
strike you how remarkably this was the case in the 
Supper-chamber, when, in the very midst of that 
solemn, sacred feast, they were interrupted by Judas 
getting up and going out of the room ? Such breaks 
in seasons of retirement and communion seem to me 
to say, how can you expect to go through any ser- 
vice of prayer or praise without interruption ? How 
often, when Jesus went to be alone, He was inter- 
rupted ! and we are not greater than our Lord." 

The holy Bolton once said — " Oh ! when will this 
good hour come ? When shall I be dissolved ! 
"When shall I be with Christ ?" Another holy man 
once wrote — 

" Should not the exile. Lord, desire 
His own sweet realm to see ? 
The bride to greet her absent Lord : 
The prisoner to be free ? 

26* 



306 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

" When we, amid tliis stormy world, 
Feel like the homeless dove, 
We would in spirit spread the wing, 
To flee to thee we love." 

Dear Adelaide was beginning to long more and more 
intensely for her Home. " I was thinking last 
night," she writes, April 13 (1853), " of the words — 
1 Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 
that He may exalt you in due time.' There is no 
such c exaltation' as going to be with Him. I do 
often wonder if the time is near for that. I shall 
not mind this humiliation, if it is the prelude to 
that honour. I most fully agree with what you say 
about ' time.' I believe waiting is quite as much a 
part of our serving as any active work might be, and 
that it is the acting of the Spirit, and not of the flesh, 
which tells." 

And, in another letter, she says : u Every one 
seems to think me well or nearly so, except myself; 
but I don't feel it, and therefore don't believe it. 
Perhaps I am unwilling to believe. Indeed, I can- 
not be contented to be down here, though I do try to 
say 'As thou wilt' about it. And God chooses to 
exercise me by keeping me abiding still here in the 
flesh. One thing I know — Jesus will have me, when- 
ever He chooses, to be with Him where He is. And 
you, too !" 

Other pilgrim-experiences she gives thus : " I do 
lono- for some face-to-face communion, if the Lord 
Jesus will sweeten it by filling us both with His 
Spirit, and then drawing near Himself to share our 



THE SERAPHIM, 807 

joy." And, alluding to a visit from the Rev. Mr. 

T , of Rugby : " I saw very little of him ; hut 

that little was enough to excite mutual interest on 
various subjects. I can't tell you how strange these 
momentary catches at Christian intercourse and 
friendship seem to me. How they explain that 
this is 'a time-state,' and that we are finite crea- 
tures, 'pilgrims and sojourners,' meeting only to 
part again — everything, in fact, being only l in part.' 
I do long for this ' in part' state to be { done away,' 
and the ' perfect' to come. And yet how many 
enjoyments peculiar to itself belong to it !" And 
again : " I do so like the ups and downs, and all 
the sudden transitions, in the Psalms. They used 
to trouble me, as if they disturbed the beauty of the 
passage ; but now I seem so to enter into them." 
And elsewhere : " Lately I have found such com- 
fort from the type of the ' red heifer,' as the special 
provision made for our wilderness -journey when we 
get continually defiled and want re-admission (if I 
may use such a word) into holv communion in the 
holy place. Amidst our unceasing re-commission 
of sin every moment, should not we make instant 
application afresh to the cleansing blood of Jesus, 
and so keep our conscience purged moment by 
moment ?" 

The seraphim— those emblems of redeemed sin- 
ners in glory — use two of their six wings in service ; 
but with four of the wings they cover their feet and 
their faces. Writing to Mrs. C W , Ade- 
laide says : "I have been sent down into the valley 



308 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

of humiliation lately, in a way which makes me feel 
for you. I have just seemed to go from one depth to 
another, till I have felt sometimes ready to lay me 
down ( as the ground and as the street' for others 
to walk over. How little young Christians know of 
self-abasement or ' self-sacrifice P Those are tremen- 
dous words, are they not ? I often feel like a sacrifice, 
bound indeed to the horns of the altar, but shrinking 
from the flame which comes to consume the sacrifice. 
However, Jesus will take care that His Father is 
glorified, in spite of all our crying while the rod is in 
His hand. That thought often comforts me. And I 
was thinking this week that it is really a privilege to 
be in His furnace at all ; for it is not intended for 
reprobate silver, but only for choice gold ; and if we 
were not His choice gold, we should not have been 
put in there." 

This " house-devil," self (as Rutherford calls it), 
was exorcised, not by melancholy mopings over her 
own heart, but by a steadfast contemplation of Christ. 
" I want God," she writes, " to have quite entirely 
His own way with me, and to be uninfluenced in 
wishing anything for mvself. I have been thinking 
to-day of Jesus as the ; burnt-offering. 1 Mr. Jukes 
says, ' Everything He did or said was for God. From 
first to last, self had no place ; His Father's work, 
His Father's will, was everything.' There is no joy 
so great as sharing the Father's delight in Jesus. 
How wonderful it will be hereafter, will it not ? * My 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' 'Mine 
Elect, in whom mv soul delighteth !' and the Offer* 



SOUL- NAKED X ESS. 309 

ing in which God could and did find pleasure. What 
a very sustaining thought it must have been to Jesus, 
to feel so sure as He did that He always did those 
things which pleased the Father ! I think it must 
have been that which carried Him through those 
hours of tremendous endurance on the cross ; for He 
would know, even then, that He was doing His Fath- 
er's will in enduring His Father's lighteous displea- 
sure. And, though it could not alter the agony, or 
create joy, it could sustain Him. Oh ! how delight- 
ful it must be to Him now, to look back and see 
how perfectly He pleased His Father, and how 
beautifully He executed His work as His righteous 
Servant ! 

" Don't you think," she adds, u we might be much 
happier, if we pleaded all Christ's holy obedience as 
our own, and learned to know ourselves as really 
welcome and well-pleasing to our Father in Him ? I 
was struck with this in the texts I am sending on 
Rev. iii. 18 — that He would have us clothed, so that 
the shame of our nakedness ' do not appear.' Does 
it not mean that He would have us lose the conscious- 
ness of that nakedness of soul which sin brings with 
it, just as. when He clothed Adam and Eve with 
skins, they would not need any longer to hide them- 
selves through shame ? And, if we were ' hot' and 
zealous, instead of cold and lukewarm, we should 
really get all those blessings which He offers us 
— riches, clothing and eyesight; — wealth to traffic 
with spiritually ; beauty which Jesus could admire 
(as He so often did in Solomon's Song, when evee 



310 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON, 

one chain of the neck could ravish Him) ; and eye- 
sight for ourselves to see the Kino; in His beautv } 
I cannot wish you more precious things than these, 
can I ? But I try to pray that they may all be yours 
abundantly." 

Another interesting glimpse into her hidden life 
is given elsewhere, thus : " Lately I have felt such 
an indescribable apathy come over me ; but I believe 
bodily debility has a great deal to do with it. How- 
ever, in spite of all these clogs and hindrances to 
fellowship with the Father and with His Son, I often 
get such precious foretastes of heavenly realities as 
only make me impatient to ' be swallowed up of life' 
(how strange that that should be ( death P but I 
suppose, in 2 Cor. v., it refers rather to the resurrec- 
tion-morning). And I have a more realizing feeling 
of nearing the haven, by every passing hour, than I 
ever had before. But do pray for me, that this nat- 
ural self may die and Christ live in me." 

And she adds : " Have you read the l Memoir of 
Emma Maurice V I have been so struck by her 
prayers that she might be ' crushed' and Christ glo- 
rified. Could you ask that? I like many of he: 
letters and j>rayers so very much, especially one on 
' Freeness of grace' — like a crown set upon its ' ful- 
ness.' Free, in spite of all our coldness and despe- 
rate sinfulness as Christians ! I have learned to 
prize the * searching scrutiny of God.' " 

The summer brought with it onlv increasing 
weakness. "The main feeling I have had for many 
months," she writes, May 20 (1853) "is as if I were 



"A GLIMPSE WITHIN THE TAIL." '411 

worn out by lengthened illness. I have none of the 
energy I used to have ; and I find it very, very hum- 
bling." And to another : u I often weary to be gone ; 
and the ' little while' seems long. But, as Mr. Stow- 
ell was saying to me, the thing, after all, is, to be 
brought to say, ' Not my will, but thine be done.' I 
suppose seven years of illness must wear one out, in 
some measure, and damp one's spirits ; but ' the joy 
of the Lord' can soou raise one up again, if He sees 
one ean bear it. I trust you are full of peace, and 
joy, and hope.*' 

And some weeks later she says : " I have been 
feeling how unreasonable it is for me to wonder that, 
after seven years of illness and so much joy, there 
should be now that wearing down of one's energies 
which I have felt so much. However, I am better 
of this ; and I think I shall soon be able to look 
back upon it as a very valuable passage in my wil- 
derness-journey. I had a precious glimpse within 
the vail on Saturday. I could only think of the 
words, ' The King hath brought me into His 
chambers ;' and these words came home to me as 
full of sweetness, ' Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto 
Him,' as if it were enough for the soul to sing for 
Him alone to hear. Can I oive vou the idea I had 
about it ? like singing for Jesus, as one would do for 
some very dear friend who took pleasure in listening 
to one. He does say, ' Let me hear thy voice.' I 
want you to pray that I may have the joy of His 
salvation fully restored to me, or, rather, more than 
restored. I want to have ic so as 1 never had it be- 



312 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

fore. I want to be a burning light — a sacrifice as- 
cending up with a brilliant flame of fire." 

And ao^ain : " I have been a-beo^ino* to Hiin ; but 
I should like to take you with me, and let us urge 
each other on to grow bolder and more urgent, and 
to vie, as it were, with each other, and see which can 
get most — to be more Christ-like — to see how much 

we can get for each other. Oh ! my precious L , 

how my heart clings to the remembrance of days 
when we have had Jesus with us, warming our 
hearts whilst we talked with Him. I was thinking 
last night of Enoch — how like a ' burnt- offering' he 
was, his whole life consecrated to God, c walking with 
God !' and then, how literally an ascension, being 
4 translated !' God ( took him' — himself — his whole 
self ! How beautiful, is it not \ I don't think there 
is anything like it in the Bible, save his Master." 

Like " Christian" emerging from the " Valley of 
the Shadow of Death," she now could say, " His 
candle shine tk on my kead, and by His light I go 
through darkness." And, like the Pilgrim, looking 
back upon " the dangers of her solitary way," she 
writes : " I never had gone through anything like 
this before. Hell-deserving I had indeed often felt 
myself to be ; but this was as if I kad kellishness in 
my very nature. I seemed as if I could not love ; 
and the only words which suited me were those of 
Peter, ' Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O 
Lord.' I could only be thankful that, in spite of it 
all, I could not but continue on my knees before tfoe 
throne of grace, expecting deliverance in due season. 



CONCEPTION" AND FAITH. 313 

and that I never seemed able for a moment to disbe- 
lieve my adoption and my right to call God ' my 
God.' How precious the very struggle is betwixt 
the new man and the old ! It at least proves that 
the ' strong man armed' is not keeping ' his goods' 
in peace. And such abasing of self, too, is the 
means God has used for preparing me to l see greater 
things.' It is just the way He dealt with Daniel and 
with Isaiah, is it not ?" 

And, in another letter, she adds : " I was in dan- 
ger of being ' exalted above measure ;' and, in answer 
to my own prayers, I was laid low, and have been 
kept low. I have found out many precious things 
by it, which I know I could not have learned in a 
happier state of mind ; and I am really and honestly 
thankful, though one cannot help longing to be full 
of light, and life, and love." 

And again : u My greatest trouble has been from 
going on day after day without any of what Dr. 
Chalmers calls 'conception;' for faith may be in 
strong exercise whilst we are all in the dark, as it 
were, from want of conception — not being able to 
realize the countenance and smile of Jesus, though 
knowing assuredly all the while that it was there un- 
changed if we could but see it. The idea I found in 
the forty-third Psalm one day, greatly to my delight. 
You remember how David calls God there his ; ex- 
ceeding joy,' at the very moment when his soul was 
so 'cast down.' He was fully conscious that God 
was that to him ; and yet at the time he had no 
happy consciousness of the truth in his own expe- 
27 . 



314 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

rience. Is it not so exactly what one often feels 
one's-seif?" 

Bishop Ridley once remarked that the walls and 
trees of his orchard, could they speak, would bear 
witness that there he had learned by heart almost all 
the Epistles, and that of the study he should carry 
the sweet savour with him to heaven. " To get 
deeper into any of God's thoughts," writes dear 
Adelaide " is so sublimating. You can't think what 
longings I have had for a sight of Jesus lately ; faith 
does not in the least satisfy me. I know, indeed, 
there is a heaven of communion to be enjoyed even 
on earth. How very beautifully one sees it in Cant, 
i. 4 and hi. 4 taken together — Jesus bringing His 
bride 'into His chambers' and she brino-ino* Him 
into hers ; both unlocking, as it were, the innermost 
recesses of the inner man, to admit each other into 
the very closest intimacy which language can con- 
vey an idea of — Jesus entering into the soul, and the 
soul entering into Jesus ! But if we can taste such 
exquisite sweetness of delight when we get into His 
chambers now by faith, what will it be to be with 
Him bodily and for ever P. 

And, again looking back along the way by which 
she has been led, she writes : " I am so glad to hear 
you say you have had more rest in Jesus of late. It 
is just the one thing that I think I can say I have 
had. It has certainly not been resting in enjoyments, 
or in outward ease, but just simply turning from all 
these to seek and find it in Jesus only. It is not 
any one thing which has tried me ; it seems to me 



"THE POTTER'S HOUbE." 315 

more tlie living over again of David's life. I am so 
exceedingly struck, in reading through Samuel, with 
the complication of his trials, the one folllowing so 
upon another, and so little peace between. Such a 
picture of our experiene, don't you think? I was 
thinking yesterday how remarkable it was that 
through that experience he was enabled to write the 
Psalms, a book which one like Solomon could never 
have written. So there must be Davids now ; and I 
believe we who know most of the reality of such ex- 
periences, will enter most deeply into the praises of 
eternity." 

And the same letter, thus : " What lessons we 
may learn in the ' Potter's house !' (Jer. xviii. 1-6.) 
I have taken the re-making of the marred vessel, in 
reference, first, to our bodies, then to our souls, and 
then to the earth. It is very striking to my own 
mind, that the word used, in Gen. ii. 7, Isa. xliii. 7, 
xliv. 2, 21, or Ps. cxxxix, 15, 16, of the forming or 
fashioning of the body, is the very same word which 
describes the operations of a potter ; and the same 
is true of the spirit in Ps. xxxiii. 15, Zech. xii. 1 ; 
and also, I think, of the earth, in Isa. xlv. 18 — 
* formed' it. All three are ' marred' by sin ; yet all 
three are renewed or re-made by the Heavenly Pot- 
ter. And I was struck with the expression, 'the 
vessel was marred in the hand of the potter,' as if 
Jesus lets nothing fall out of His hands, but simply 
keeps the vessel, even when marred, until it is re- 
made. Oh, how I long for a yielding, clay-like 



31G MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

Bpirit ! ' Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in 
heart, and ye shall find rest.' How fully one knows, 
that so soon as a real lowliness of spirit fills one's 
heart towards God, a calm steals over one, in place 
of the agitation of the troubled waves of rebellious- 
ness of will ! Oh, how my will has distracted me 
these last few months ! — but I believe God could de- 
tect the 'new man' ever saying 'Not my will' even 
when I could only discern the workings of the ' old 
man' in myself struggling for the mastery." 

A thought on Resurrection she gives to a bereaved 
friend thus : " I cannot tell you how I have delighted 
in the thought of every seed having ' its own body' 
lately. I never liked what some people lay so much 
stress upon — each particle of dust which forms these 
vile earthly bodies being gathered together and raised : 
the expression, 'Thou fool! thou sowest not that body 
that shall be,' seems quite to contradict it, to my mind. 
But every seed will have its own body, and be in- 
stantly recognized, just as each plant now is known 
from the seed that was sown. And is there not food 
for precious contemplation in that ?" 

The Lord's " appearing" she watched for with a 
new longing. "I have many times," she writes, 
" thought of your question, ' What are the signs 
now which warrant the expectation of the immediate 
coming of our Lord V I always feel that the pe- 
culiarity of the signs of the present day consists 
chiefly, if not entirely, in the movement amongst the 
Jews. But do you not think that, in order to a real 



COMING. 317 

expectation of Christ's corning at any hour, we must 
give up the idea of not seeing Him until all the signs 
are accomplished and He stands on the Mount of 
Olives in the Holy Land, as in Zech. xiv. ? I have 
been driven to this." 



iV 



CHAPTER XX. 

Fhe poet Spenser, himself not a stranger to the 

mysteries of the inner life, once wrote — 

u The soul's dark cottage, shattered and decayed, 
Lets in new light through chinks which time has tnade. n 

Dear Adelaide's " dark cottage" was gradually decay- 
ing. At the end of August (1853), her cough grew 
worse ; and we find her physician " warning her that 
it would be serious if not checked." " Of this," she 
herself writes, " I feel perfectly conscious ; I am 
very low and poorly." But a new joy filled her soul. 
" Perhaps," she said one day, to a friend who was 
leaving her, " the next time we meet, it may he with 
Jesus." " I never shall forget," says that friend, " the 
heavenly smile which beamed in her features as she 
spoke." 

And writing to the Hon. Mrs. C , she says : 

" T have seen more of Jesus lately than ever before. 
There is something overpowering beyond expression 
to my mind in seeing anything of His intense holi- 
ness and perfeetness. I could not endure it, I am 
certain, if it were not for knowing that that very life 
was lived for me, in my stead, and as my right- 



"KOW COME I TO THEE. 7 319 

eousness and sanctification. One passage which has 
come with special power to me about Him is John 
xvii. Up to that hour He had gone on in uncom- 
plaining silence, except as from time to time He had 
let drop expressions which plainly told all He was 
feeling, as in Ps. xxxv. 17, ' Lord, how long wilt thou 
look on ?' or in Luke xii. 50, ' How am I restrained V 
But no sooner was the time come, than His delight 
broke forth as (in ver. 1) He 'lifted up His eves and 
said, Father, the hour is come !' Who can imagine 
the depths of untold satisfaction with which He 
must have burst forth with those words towards His 
Father ? as if His spirit were ready to bound towards 
Him the instant it might ! And then He goes on to 
say (v. 11-13), in His own most exquisite way, 'And 
now I am no more in the world' — ' and now come I 
to thee.' Is there not something exquisite in that \ 
Oh ! I think God the Father must have listened to 
it with such supreme delight (as in Pro v. xxiii. 15, 
16). 

" And then," she proceeds, " if one looks at Him 
in John xii. 27, 28, and for one single moment 
hears Him ready to say, in the anguish of His soul, 
4 Father, save me from this hour' — how instantly He 
sets aside the wish with the words, ' But for this 
cause came I unto this hour ;' and then quite, as it 
were, triumphing over self altogether, He makes 
this His real prayer, '" Father, glorify thy name !' 
learning, through that very experience, to be able at 
last to testify, c 1 have glorified thee on the earth.' 
I can't write down what this reveals to me of what 



320 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

He felt: but you will u:t ' ■ yourself^ 

and I know you will enjoy it as I do. C > 

fort I have found in using His words '. U 

very precisely what I want > 1 Yon 

precious it 1 though it has iost me many 

bitter tears. How. without such bitterness, 

one lone to say with Him. ' S o me 5 

but when "the hour' is really e oc ft'l it he 

glorious? to be 'no more in the le to 

the Father P 1 

And she adds: "Another passage is Mat:, xvi. 
21-27. The margin :: verse 22 struck rne Gist, 
' Pity thy so':. Lord. 3 It was o burst 

of kindly feeling from Peter's 
yet, just because it was natural, md savoured ": i 
it was so offensive to Jesus that He could not 
it. Does it nc t wonderfully reveal th e : edck liseern- 
ment of Jesus! Knowing that it became I v 
make Him perfect through sufferings. He :uld not 
tolerate the idea of evading those sufferings :;. >ne 
moment. "The cup which my Father hath given 
me, shall I n : t :':o.;t:t." Don't you think there is 
a wonderful unfolding of Hi- perfectness in the 
shrinking He had from pitying Himself! and then, 
with ail these thoughts and feelings fresh in His own 
mind, how one seems tc understand what H- meant 
when He turned and said that if any man w 
follow Him. so far from pitying, he roy him- 

self! I suppose you ha:I ten traced >ut the o:o- 
nexion between these two finings. I never ha I seen 
it before. And I have just been so much struck 



321 

with the Transfiguration following it. Did it ever 
strike you that the very subject Peter so recoiled 
from was the very theme which Moses and Elias 
talked over with Jesus ? — they ' spake of His de- 
cease.' Probably that was the only time on earth 
that He was ever able to speak freely of His death 
to any one who understood about it ; and can't 
you imagine it to have been exceedingly comforting 
to Him ?" 

Other vails, besides the " dark cottage," hide the 
glory of Christ. "I know," she writes, Oct. 13, to 
one who had been smitten with a sore bereavement, 
" you will be finding out some fresh recesses in His 
heart of love, now that this vail of flesh is rent 
asunder which hitherto has been as a curtain to 
conceal them from you. Oh ! that both of us may 
be enabled to penetrate leeper into Jesus, and learn 
all the beauties wdiich our tear-dimmed eyes can 
discern, while we seem drawn w T ithin the very 
threshold of that glory into which the bappy spirit 
has entered." 

And another veil is a ruffled spirit. " I never re- 
member," she writes, " having felt so irritable before. 
How trying it is ! I have been exactly what Cant. i. 
1 (marg.) says, ' as one that is vailed.' How charac- 
teristic of the book that expression is — is it not ? 
The Bride not imagining for a moment that Jesus is 
changed, but truthfully owning that she cannot see 
Him rightly !" 

And another vail is external ease. " It does me 
good to 1/ e made at times uncomfortable outwardly— 



322 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

it unsettles me from my earthly home, where one is 
so apt to settle so unconsciously." And she adds : 
" Don't you think there is such a difference in the 
very way one says k Lord/ at one time and at an- 
other ? One day, it may be with a vague and general 
assurance that there is a God to whom one speaks 
and looks. At another time, one's very heart seems 
to go forth to the Person one looks to, as to one's 
dearest and most intimate of friends — a Father, a 
Maker, or our Jehcvah." 

In her Diary, she writes: "May 14 (1853). — 
Cocker died about seven a. m., to enter into the pre- 
sence of Jesus. The first-fruits (to me) of the Rag- 
ged School. Oh, to pray for a large harvest to fol- 
low !" "June £, Sun. — Was very, very tired all day, 
and only felt at the Lord's Table what a miracle of 
mercy it will be for me to be found iu heaven !" 

"June 22. — M was transplanted to the garden 

of Jesus in glory. From the very commencement 
of her illness ?Le used to speak of going to Jesus, 
and seemed quite aware she was going, saying, 

4 M going to the blue sky.' She liked of all 

things for H to talk to her about it, and would 

smile sometimes at this when nothing else moved 
her." "July 1 1.— Sent Dr. Bonar 'Terrible Things 
in Righteousness' " (article for " Quarterly Journal of 
Prophecy"). "Aug. 6. — Finished the rough copy of 
article on Solor cl's Song for Dr. Bonar." 

And again: "Aug. 15. — Dr. Bonar came at seven 
p.m. He prom .-ed to read my ' Hebrews' if I would 
do it, and bade rre consider myself pledged to do it 



DIARY. 323 

Is this God's certain token to me of His will?" 

"Aug. 29. — Dr. said my cough was becoming 

serious. Mrs. B and the Rev. C B 

came ; he talked of Solomon's Song, and prayed 

with us." " Sept. 27. — Mr. B came, and stayed 

nearly two hours with me : he talked of Jesus ; Cant. 
i. 5 ; ii. 17, 18 ; iv. 6, 7 ; vi. 11, 12." "Nov. 15.— 
Irish Church Missions Meeting. Saw Mr. Bickersteth." 

"Dec. 11, Sun. — Mr. Dallas preached at St. A 

on Rom. viii. 26, 27, and afterwards gave it to me 
alone, and prayed with me." 

At the end of October, her illness so much in- 
creased that she never again was out of doors. But, 
with a singular energy, she devoted herself during her 
remaining months to her work on the Hebrews. 
And the Lord seemed to use it for teaching her new 
lessons as she hastened forward to her home, " He- 
brews has shown me so much," was her remark one 
day towards the close, " what sin is, by what it cost 
— I ow T e it so much ! Oh ! it has been well worth 
any suffering, to learn out of it the need of Christ's 
salvation by what sin is. There is no reality in your 
religion, at least no depth of reality, till you have 
learned in this way for yourself. It makes me feel 
that we don't enter into the hundredth, nor the thou- 
sandth, nor the millionth part of what there is for us 
in Christ, or we could not live as we do." 

And another lesson which it taught her, she indi- 
cates : u I cannot do Hebrews — I am so humbled aver 
it still. I seem to have no power to touch it. How 
dependent we are upon God — are we not? I have 



824 MEMOIR OF A . L . KEWTOK. 

not a word to say till He opens my lips ; and I feel 
as if He had laid me down with my face on the 
ground, and as if I must wait till His hand touched 
me, and set me on my feet again. It is worse than 
useless to tiy to do anything in my own weakness (I 
need not call it c strength.')'' 

And again : u Solitude and isolation drove me to 
Jesus as my Beloved One, at the time I did Solo- 
mon's Song. And bitter lessons of sin in myself 
and in those about me, which deepen almost every 
day and hour, seem to be my necessary portion, ere 
I can understand what Jesus is as my High Priest." 
And elsewhere she adds : " How intensely interesting 
the later discipline of God's people is — that self-pros- 
tration ! It is the thing I feel youngest in, of any in 
the Christian life." 

Her sympathies with the afflicted, too, were kin- 
dled into a new vividness. " I hope ere this you are 
really better," she writes to one tried sufferer. 
" These poor, frail bodies, how full of infirmity they 
are ! I am constantly made to feel it, and therefore 
can feel for you. For how differently sympathy is 
felt when it arises out of felt experience, from the 
mere sympathy of kind fellow-feeling ! I have had 
this strong! v on mv mind lately, from those words 
in Heb. ii. 18 : 'In that He himself hath suffered, 
being tempted, He is able to succour them that are 
tempted.' And I think one sees the opposite of this 
bo strongly in the Book of Job, where his three 
friends actually aggravated instead of lessening hip 



8 Y MP ATHIES. 325 

miseries, from their want of understanding of his 
trials. 4 Miserable comforters are ye all ! ■ ' 

And she adds : " How often one is shut up to look 
for sympathy and help from Him who alone can 
know the peculiar texture of our minis, and who 
only can have largeness of heart enough to compre- 
hend all the variety of trials which distress all His 
4 many sons. Did you ever find comfort to yourself 
from that expression, ' largeness of heart .-' I re- 
member once its being made such a word in season 
to me, as I was reading 1 Kings iv., and saw in Solo- 
mon the type or figure of the ' greater than Solomon.' 
It says : ' God gave Solomon . . . largeness of 
heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.' 
And taken in connexion with the promise to Abra- 
ham, that his seed should be as many as the sand on 
the sea-shore for multitude, I think it is inexpressibly 
comforting to feed that Jesus has i largeness of heart' 
enough to take in every smallest grain of sand — 
every feeblest child in His family, and to care for 
eveiy one P 

To a bereaved mother, Mrs. C W , she 

writes, on another occasion, thus : " I felt for you not 
a little. I knew how your heart was bleeding, and I 
hoped you felt the hand of your tender Heavenly 
Physician binding up your wounds. For dear E- — , 
I could, of course, only rejoice. She has made her 
escape from her clay prison, and is at liberty to bask 
in the full sunshine of Christ's own presence — no: 
one sin grieving her ! I could almost envv her.*' 

Borne upward on the wings of faith and of hope, 
28 " 



826 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

we find her longing at times after Christ with an 
intenseness of desire almost more than human. u Oh ! 
I have such intense, unutterable cravings," she writes 

to the Hon. Mrs. C , at one of those seasons, 

" after a real seeing and handling of the Word of 
Life Incarnate, that I am only conscious of the most 
intense emptiness and longings after the real, real 
thing. I wonder if you will understand, what I can- 
not express ; — it has been, as it were, such a sense 
of immortality which I have had — the immortality 
of my own soul, and its inability to find rest in any- 
thing finite. I can't understand whv the indwelling 
of the Holy Spirit is not more enough to me than it 
is, unless it be that I have so little of it ; but it is 
Christ I want to see ; and nothing but being present 
with Him seems the least to give me any idea of 
being satisfied." 

And to another : " The character of Christ, as 
given in His own words in the Gospels, is such a 
study ! Its marvellous perfectness — how it astonishes 
me and fills me with wonder and admiration — I may 
say, with awe ! I am downright staggered by the 
exceeding riches of His grace sometimes — how He 
can go on pardoning day after day, and hour after 
hour ! Don't you often feel ashamed to go to ask it % 
really I sometimes cannot get the words out for 
shame. Do you remember how He wit son used to 

feel this \ he does so suit me. G has just got his 

4 Letters and Remains,' and I have been feasting on 
them again to-day. I never knew any one whose 
experience came home to me like his : he attained to 






LONGINGS. 321 

Buch closeness of walk with God. "No words could 
describe the unutterable longings and cravings of 
soul I have had after Him lately, and intercourse 
with Him. I quite like to spend my time on my 
knees, whether I can pray or not ; and often I have 
not a word to say. Oh ! to be fed by the Lamb 
before the throne from those living fountains which 
will quench our thirst !" 

The " Great-hearts" of the wilderness stimulate 
other pilgrims on their way. " Slow-pace" and 
" Short-wind" and " Linger-after-lust" and " No- 
heart" bring up an evil report of the Land, M saying 
it is not half so good as some pretend it is ;" and 
they " persuade people that the Lord is a hard task- 
master;" and they call the bread of God, husks — 
the comfort of His children, fancies — the travel and 
labour of pilgrims, things to no purpose." But 
Great-heart " takes sword and helmet and shield," 
and, facing " Giant Grim," boldly says, " These 
women and children are going on pilgrimage, and 
this is the way they must go ; and go it they shall, 
in spite of thee and the lions." And Great-heart is 
not bold in vain. " Come," said he to the pilgrims, 
" what think you of the pilgrimage now V " Sir," 
said the youngest of them, 4 ' I was almost beat out 
of heart ; but I thank you for lending me a hand at 
my need." 

Dear Adelaide was a Great-heart. " I feel so sor- 
ry for you having to go from place to place," she 
writes to a friend travelling on the Continent ; " but 
this comfort, at any rate, I have, that in all your 






328 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

wilderness-wanderings the Lord walks with you from 
place to place in the tent or tabernacle of your body 
(2 Sam. vii. 6, 7) ; and that sanctifies all. The joy 
and peace of ' walking in the light' is something so 
unutterably blissful, is it not ? and surely it is our 
purchased privilege in Jesus — ' They shall walk, O 
Lord, in the light of Thy countenance : in Thy name 
shall they rejoice all the day.' " 

And to a friend in Edinburgh, Miss G , she 

writes : " Many thanks for your note to me. Those 
words of Mrs. Barbour's are truly wonderful and 
God-glorifying. What an idea it gives one of the 
immensity of God, that He can be giving so abund- 
antly to such numbers of His people all at once, and 
be none the poorer Himself! 'The Lord will give 
grace and glory' — the one for time, the other for 
eternity, don't you think ? Are you freed yet from 
all the dark clouds you spoke of? I am wonderfully 
brought up out of the depths. No words can say, in 
the least, what unutterable cravings of heart I have 
had after a sight — a real, satisfying sight — of Jesus. 
I can't understand it, when I ask to be filled with the 
Holy Ghost. Is it His indwelling which creates 
these longings after heaven's own bliss in what Mr. 
A— — described yesterday as ' union with God V 
Oh ! how sweet a Eefuge Jesus is in every storm ! I 
do believe He grows dearer to me now every day. 
As to health," she adds, " I am just ready to be fin- 
ished with at any moment if it pleased God, and yet 
in that state that, if He chooses, He may keep me 
going for a while still on earth." 



PATIENCE. 329 

And to the same friend : " I have just read 
through the two books of Samuel. Poor David ! 
what a life he led ! I can't say w 7 hat a feeling his 
history has given me. I grew so weary of his inces- 
sant miseries, and did seem so to sympathize with 
and understand the endless variety of them, that one 
thing, and only one, helped me through ; and that 
was, the realizing how exactly that discipline fitted 
him for writing the Psalms. One sees how exactly 
one's own path is chosen by God to fit us for doing 
the particular work He designed for us from eter- 
nity, and how no other path could do so well ; and 
does not that give you a great feeling of contentment 
and of being satisfied to have things as they are ? 
A little patient endurance will bring us where we 
shall admire each step of the way with such admira- 
tion ! Oh ! what intensity of happiness there is in 
casting in one's lot with Jesus ! I have so much felt 
lately that it is less the particular enjoyment of the 
present hour or moment that I care for, than the 
settled assurance altogether that I am His and that I 
am going along the Zionward way which leads straight 
to His presence. What privileged beings you and I 
are, to be under His own hand — His own training,* 
and to know it !" 

In another letter, her strong heart encourages a 
fainting fellow-pilgrim thus : "I am very, very jeal- 
ous of any vagueness of thought respecting the real 
personality of the Spirit. I don't believe we half 
realize it, or we could not talk of His 4 influences' as 
we do. Oh I to be filled with God the Holy Ghost ! 
2S* 



330 MEMOIR OF A. L. XEWTON. 

Then how strong we should be ! how holy ! how 
Christ-like ' in short, everything we want to be. I 
have so rested on those words lately, ' I am persuaded 
that He is able.' Shall I send them to you? "What 
does it matter how weak we are ? Rather may we 
learn to ' glory in our infirmities !' " 

Do not the thoughts which follow strike a chord 
in many a pilgrim's heart ? " I am reading Hosea," 
she writes. " How fearful our tendency is to be 
ever dealing treacherously with Jesus ! I am so 
tired of my heart. How wonderful Jesus is, that 
He can ' love us to the end' ! I have been so much 
struck with the picture He Himself has drawn of our 
wilderness-life, in calling it by those two emphatic 
words, ' The provocation.' One feels it is so true 
that each fresh stage only calls forth fresh murmur- 
ing and rebelliousness, until, from beginning to 
end, one literally seems to look back upon one series 
of provocations. And then, too, the bitterness of it 
is so aggravated by the remembrance that it is all 
against that loving God who has "already ' many a 
time' forgiven our iniquity. Oh ! how great it makes 
His love to forgive and pardon all those forty years' 
' provocations I 

" But the text," she adds, " I had thought of send- 
ing you to-day was this, i Ye are they which have 
continued with me in my temptations.' (Luke xxii. 
28.) It has been made very precious to me in two 
ways — one, as showing how Jesus prizes and appre- 
ciates the constant love of His people and their pro- 
tracted endurance of suffering for His sake ; and the 



"CONTINUING WITH JESUS." 331 

other, as showing the preciousness of protracted life, 
when it is viewed as a continuing with Jesus in the 
fellowship of His sufferings. It seems to be only in 
advancing experience that one can at all enter into 
the deep meaning of His words ; but when continu- 
ance amidst temptation is felt to be very trying, 
they are precious words indeed, are they not ? and 
if I can feel them so, how much more can you ! But 
I must stop — only wishing you great grace to enable 
you to rejoice greatly in the Lord, and to make your 
boast in Him continually. Don't you like to give 
vent to your feelings in those three words, ' Blessed 
be God?'" 

William Cowper has beautifully said of M Contem- 
plation," that 

1 Her power is such, that whom she lifts from earth 
She makes familiar with a heaven unseen, 
And shews him glories yet to be revealed. 
Eot slothful he. though seeming unemployed 
And censured oft as useless. Stillest streams 
Oft water fairest meadows, and the bird 
That flutters least is longest on the wing." 

Adelaide Newton makes little noise ; but, on her 
eagle-pinions, she soars higher and higher into the 
regions of the heavenly life. " I have just finished 
reading through Kings,*' she writes, in the autumn 
of 1853 ; " and one thought has impressed itself very 
strongly on my mind, as I have gone from chapter 
to chapter ; — especially in contrast with the subject 
I lately sent you on Christ's character, as given in 
the Gospels— He always doing what His Father did 






332 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

(John v. 19) — always keeping His Father's com- 
mandments, without turning aside — always main- 
taining such entire and universal regard to all that 
was holy, just, and good. How very, very seldom 
we come upon very thorough Christians ! A great 
many are sincere, and do a great deal that is right ; 
but a Caleb, a Joshua, a David, a Moses, or a Daniel, 
are very rare. And how striking is such a testimony 
as this—' He did that which was right in the sight 
of the Lord ; yet not like David his father' ! (2 
Kings xiv. 3). It was altogether a much lower stan- 
dard ; and it is added, ( Howbeit the high places 
were not taken away — as yet the people did sacrifice 
and burnt incense on the high places.' These are 
the words which have so especially struck me. 
Again and again we read — ^he did that which was 
right,' save that ' the high places were not removed, the 
people sacrificed and burnt incense still.' (2 Kings xv. 
3, 4, 34, 35, &c, &c.) Oh ! dear , is it not a sol- 
emn thing to hear the Searcher of hearts ever saying 
that there is ' still' some idolatry indulged ; ' still' some 
secret sins spared ; ' still' some reserve in our obed- 
ience ? If there had been no exceptions amongst the 
kings, we should naturally feel that it was a kind of 
impossible thing to reach a higher standard. But 
don't you think such cases as Josiah and Hezekiah 
quite prove the contrary ? Of both it is said, that 
they did that which was right in the sight of the 
Lord, according to all that David did (2 Kings xviii. 
34 ; xxii. 2) ; and they did remove the high places, 
and cut down the groves. So that altogether it tella 



A CONTRAST. 333 

of the low state in which, for the most part, we are, 
as Christians, content to live ; so unlike Jesus, who 
had respect, literally, unto all the commandments!" 

And she adds : " The text I have chosen to send 
you this week is such a precious one — l Let them 
shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous 
cause ; yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord 
be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity 
of His servant.' Is not that raising us immensely 
high, to make our joy to consist so largely in God's 
joy in the prosperity of Jesus ? And is it not beau- 
tiful to hear Jesus praying that His Father may i be 
magnified' for taking pleasure in His success ? I 
feel, dearest , that I can wish you no higher en- 
joyment than much of this gladness, and that you 
may really be able to ' say continually,' ' The Lord 
be magnified.' " 

And in another letter, she says : " I always think it 
is the highest kind of joy we are invited to indulge 
in — to be sharers of God's joy ! And it is a joy so 
wholly independent of ourselves and of our own feel- 
ings, that it seems as if it might be possible that it 
should be realized, as Christ prays it may be, ' con- 
tinually.' " 

It is well to touch " from behind" the hem of 
Christ's garment, for even such a touch brings " vir- 
tue out of Him ;" but it is better to come up in front 
of Him and look into His face. " I want," Adelaide 

writes, " the felt ' kisses of His mouth.' R 

seems to get i close up' to Him in prayer. Did you 
ever connect the words, ' Be not silent unto me,' m 



834 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

Ps. xxviii., with the grand description of ' the voice 
of the Lord,' in Ps. xxix ? May He bless you every 
moment with His love, watering you (as Hevvitson 
would say) with the silent dew !" 

And again : " I am sure we are not half enough 
alone in prayer. I do so long for a closer walk with 
Jesus. I seem so very often in a kind of mist, as if 
I knew He was in the room but I could not see 
Him. Do you understand this ? Pray that I may 
have a greater spirit of prayer, and of praise too. I 
have been reading of the singers ' day and night' in 
the temple : how little we know of such constant 
praise now !" 



A visit which " a Free Church minister, Mr. C- 






B ," had paid to her, she sketches in the same 

letter, thus : " I greatly enjoyed it, because he 
seemed so very happy in God and in His Word. 
When he was up with me in this room, he appeared 
as if he could scarcely sit still sometimes for delight, 
especially when speaking of Ps. lxxxv. 10 — ' Right- 
eousness and peace have kissed each other.' He 
clasped his arms and looked all he seemed as if he 
would like to say of the exquisite beauty of God's 
own joy in the perfection of His own attributes. It 
is impossible to put it into words ; but perhaps the 
idea may strike your mind, as it did mine, in a way 
it never had before." 

And, in another letter, she says : " It strikes me 
more and more every day, how much people dwell 
upon their own feelings and experiences and duties, 
rather than upon all that Christ was and felt and did 



335 

for them ; — I mean practically. Do you not think 
one chief part of the Spirit's work is to testify ot 
Christ and, by revealing Him, to conform us to His 
likeness \ I think we often begin at the wrong end 
(if I may so express myself), trying to copy Him and 
to follow His example, instead of studying Him and 
expecting to be changed into His image ' while be- 
holding His glory.' " 

A threatened bereavement drew forth the follow- 
ing : " I know what it is to lose a father ; and I 
seem instinctively to -shrink from the thought of any- 
one I love having the prospect, even ' afar off,' of 
passing through those deep waters. But let me not 
lead you, for a passing moment, into the sin of anti- 
cipating the unknown future. Do you know those 
lines : — 

M ' I'll spare all useless thinking, 
Nor shall my mind be shrinking, 

Concerning what may be. 
I'll follow thy kind leading, 
Dear Lord, in each proceeding : 

That thou art all. sufficeth me' ? 

I don't know that any precept in the whole Bible has 
been more invaluable to me at times than this — 
4 Take no thought for the morrow ;' but it is hard to 
carry it out into practice. In fact, each day and hour 
make me see more and more how amazingly slight 
our understanding of the mere words of Scripture is. 
Its heights and depths seem reserved for Him whose 
^understanding is infinite." 






336 MEMOIR OF A . L . B E W T >~ . 

Towards the close of the yea: av« 

ing within the last few wed really ill. though 

still going about the house and pulling through all 
the outside-work of daily lire." And d u I 

have been compelled to give up nearly all my . ^re- 
writing. I have thought of your approaching eon- 
firmation-day many times lately, seeing il nrarimd in 
my ' daily food.' It is now thirti - ance I 

took those vows, and said I renoun . <fcc 

Badly enough have they all been k I thank 

God for having taken care 

broken loose from Him if He had nor fa 

me in with a somewhat ti^ht hand. Did ir era 
strike you what a solemn view it gii -hat our 

separateness from worldtineas shoold I we 

are in Christ even in His character of 'Naxnite'! 
It almost overpowered in e las! the idea 

first struck me. How false a : ition wo give 

of Him to the world — do we nc r ]" 

The fruits of this new discipline she mtex in an- 
other letter, thus : " TVhar has rriei me m:s~ is. thai 
I have felt so utterly unable r: exerf ir:-— ;'-r. espc 
ly in reading or writing. It is very hnmbling &■ 
cipline ; but. on ! E — — . I do feel : ; ino^asingiy 
that that is just what we rn:sr need. We do five bo 
very much to please ourselves ; and it wffl - 
God will not suffer it, if we are really His : and, in 
one wav or other, self must be abase . : "\ :r we 
are to be exalted hereafter. The thooghf :: Una 
reconciles me to ir all : I may say. it makes ne 
thankful for ir. even when ir is trying me most," 



"OODLiNESS." 337 

And elsewhere she says : " He keeps ne in very 
'great peace.' I can't often speak of jcy; but even 
that I have sometimes— and I feel every day how 
the items for praise are being added to, which will 
give me full employment for eternity when I know 
all." 

Another feature of her inner life was developed 
into new prominence. " I do wish I loved Jesus 
more," she writes, " in those who have no comeli- 
ness outwardly (or mentally) to attract me." And 

to another : " She is a friend of ; and seeing that 

she and you are no longer ' strangers and foreigners,' 
but of the household of God, I hope you will not feel 
it strange to be thus introduced to her. As * daugh- 
ters' of the Lord, you are sisters to one another : will 
you treat her as a sister and write to her yourself?" 
And again, on Nov. 11: "I suppose you have been 
very busy, not to have let .me share your trials and 
sorrows all these months. I won't suspect Christian 
love— it would be wronging Him who dwells within. 
Oh ! , what a marvel ' godliness' is ! * God mani- 
fest in the flesh,' not in Jesus only while He was on 
earth, but in His body mystical, still dwelt in as wo 
are by God the Holy Ghost ! Oh ! the wonder of 
this !" 

Some other thoughts are given elsewhere thus : 
" We were so agreed upon the bliss of getting away 
from self to God. One of the things which struck 

me most in Mr. P was his strong feeling of 

distress at the dishonour we cast on God by our 

unbelief of His grace. Is it not very remarkable, 

29 



338 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

: .n John's first Epistle, how every unholy thing is 
resented, as if he would instinctively have shrunk 
from it — as if he really would ' touch no unclean 
thing,' \ no lie,' * no sin.' It is such 4 walking in 
the light' — is it not i in fellowship with Jesus, the 
1 holy, harmless, undented' One — so ' separate from 
sinners !' I was so exceedingly struck with those 
words in 1 Sam. xvi. 1 — ' How long wilt thou mourn 
for Saul, seeing / have rejected him from reigning 
over Israel V as if God looked in His people for 
such oneness of mind with Himself, and such an 
understanding of what He was about, that it was a 
strange thino; for Samuel to be in the dark concern- 

ing it and to be in such useless grief. Oh ! E , 

what untold sorrow we should be spared, if our 
minds were more at one with God in all the things 
He is doing !" 

And to Mrs. G , on Noy. 18 : " Have you had 

your mind led to the subject of the ' meetness for 

the inheritance,' stated in Col. i. 12? Mr. was 

preaching on it lately, and took the ' meetness' as the 
sanctifying work of the Spirit wrought in the heart. 
But it is properly, I think, neither the Son's work nor 
the Spirit's, but the Father's — ' Giving thanks unto 
the Father, which hath made us meet.' And it 
seems to me that there is a very peculiar beauty and . 
preciousness in this ; for, if I mistake not, the idea 
of the passage is, our being pat into a new position 
or standing, even that of children — cur • sonship- 
position,' which is the literal rendering of \ adop- 
tion ;' in other words, our being; translated into the 



DESIGN OF SUFFERING. 339 

kingdom of His Son (v. 13). The Greek word for 
1 meet' assuredly signifies, not inherent qualification, 
but rather meetness of position. How much cause 
/ have for ' giving thanks unto the Father' for 
what He has done ! 4 The Lord Jesus be with your 
spirit' night and day, with light, and peace, and 
gladness !" 

And to the same, on Dec. 6 (1853): "The 
subject which has been on my mind this week is, 
the way in which our sufferings have been made to 
unfold the character of God. Formerly I had al- 
ways thought of suffering as appointed or per- 
mitted of God for our good ; and I saw little or 
nothing more. But now I can see, in His choice 
and arrangement of it, and in His methods of 
dealing it out to each single believer in the count- 
less multitude of the redeemed, the most magni- 
ficent display of His own character. And I cannot 
tell you how altered a view it has given me of it. 

His wisdom so exercised and exhibited in always 
selectino* the right kind of trial for each individual 
character ; the right quantity ; the right time for 
sendino* it, so as that it should not clash with 
any other's ; the light duration ! And then His 
power, almightiness, tenderness, and patience — how 
wonderfully they are developed in sustaining and 
comforting us under them ! Do you like the 
thouo'ht ? To me it is most precious, and takes me 
off self so much, and fixes the eye on God, which is 
just what Ineed when suffering presses somewhat sore." 

An interval of renewed elasticity was given in 






340 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

the month of December. "This intense cold," she 

writes to the Hon. Mrs. C , on Dec. 8, " has 

suited me better than the damp; it has quite re- 
stored my faculties to me (if I may so speak), and 
has wonderfully cheered me up, and filled me with 
thankfulness for this unspeakable boon. I just con- 
trived to finish Heb. viii., that it might go to you in 
the parcel, and have since been thoroughly delighting 
myself in the three next chapters, which, after much 
thought, I seem to see my way into." 

An interesting glimpse into her sick-chamber 
occurs in a brief note from one of her sisters, dated 
Dec. 12 (1853): "Dearest Adelaide is shut up 
here, living chiefly in her own two rooms, but 
coming down stairs for a change every day. She 
has failed ever since last March, and was apparently 
altering fast in October, when the idea which had 
been entertained of going to Torquay was abandoned, 
because thp medical opinion was that she was unable 
to travel. She was beautifully acquiescent in the 
decision to remain ; indeed, her state of mind may 
be called ■ heavenly :' it is so far above any that I 
ever saw in any other dear Christian friend, that I 
cannot but feel it is possible she may be thus rapidly 
maturing for an approaching removal to a holier at- 
mosphere — this is so unlike all she is and all she 
feels now ! But lately she has seemed to rally, and 
to employ herself so diligently, that perhaps she has 
yet more work to do for Jesus ; and if so, she will 
have strength to do it. Her light is most clear and 
beautiful amongst us : she only seeks Jesus' glory in 
life or ]> death." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

" This" said a dying saint, " is heaven begun. 1 
have done with darkness for ever, for ever. Satan is 
vanquished. Nothing now remains but salvation 
with eternal glory — eternal glory !" 

"The celestial city," said Payson, on his deathbed, 
" is full in view : its glories beam upon me ; its 
breezes fan me ; its odours are warded to me ; its 
music strikes upon me ; and its spirit breathes into 
my heart : nothing separates me from it but the 
river of death, which now appears as a narrow rill 
that may be crossed at a single step whenever God 
gives me permission." 

We are now to enter dear Adelaide's dying cham- 
ber ; and we shall find it, not sombre, but illumined 
with a shechinah-glory. 

44 What have I left, that I should stay and groan? 
The most of me to heaven is fled ; 
My thoughts and joys are all pack'd up and gone, 
And for their old acquaintance plead.*' 

One of her sisters writes : " For four or five months, 
she might almost be said to be dying." 

The last day she ever got downstairs was one 
morning (January 3) when she hurried after a friend 
29* 



342 MEMOIR OF A . L . KEWTOH. 

with a parcel which she was anxious should not be 
forgotten. " The effort," says her sister, " was to her 
very great ; and the exposure to the cold on that 
bitter day, as she passed down the staircase into the 
hall, was a real sacrifice. She regained her room 
only with distressing difficulty — her breathing was 
so painful, and her whole system so affected by the 
cold air." 

In her Diary we find the following brief entries : 
"Jan. 1 (1854). Very ill. 'Lord, I believe;' — my 
text for the year (?)" "Jan. 16. Dr. — — told me 
all the acute symptoms were much increased." "Jan. 

23. Saw Dr. . I asked him if it was right to 

let them think I was dying ; and his reply was, 
c There is active disease now,' adding that he did not 
think my having rallied before, any pledge of my do- 
ing so again, but the contrary, because, each attack, 
it became more difficult. Solemn to be really told 
it!" "Jan. 31. "Was enabled to write out Heb. ix. 
11-14. G promised to undertake my Scripture- 
reader ! 'Begone unbeliefl'" "Feb. 2. Saw Dr. 

: felt much better ; and he said I had gained 

some ground." "Feb. 11. M came to see me. 

How much happier we both seemed than the last 
time ! God be praised for it, and for leading us on, 
even though it be through the great and terrible 
depths of the wilderness." 

And again : "Feb. 17. Wrote to Dr. Bonar, con- 
senting that Hebrews should be begun to be printed 
immediately." " Feb. 19. Was enabled in the after- 
noon to write He\ ix. 15-20. May God accept and 



"death left behind." 343 

bless it! A very bad night," "Feb. 23. Very 
poorly; could do nothing all day." "March 1. My 

thirtieth birthday." " March 6. Saw Dr. again ; 

he said I was not so well : a very poor day " "March 

9. Saw Dr. ; but he could do nothing more 

for me." "March 28. Saw Dr. , who evidently 

thinks me going off very decidedly." "March 31. 
Received the first proof-sheet of Hebrews. The 
Lord make it all His own !" "April 12. My diffi- 
culty of breathing very great all this week, day and 
night." "April 13. Received third proof-sheet, to 
chap. ii. 3." "April 14. Received fourth proof-sheet, 
to chap. iii. 1." 

Lord Bacon has remarked that " there is no pas- 
sion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and 
masters the fear of death. Revenge triumphs over 
death ; love slights it ; honour aspireth to it ; grief 
flieth to it ; fear pre-occupieth it." In a sense which 
Bacon did not personally know, dear Adelaide " mas- 
tered" the last enemy. " I feel," she writes to Mrs. 

C W , " as if it would be quite impossible 

to express the change which is come over me in 
thinking of death. It used to be my favourite sub- 
ject. But now it seems not worth a thought. In- 
deed, I quite dislike it, not frorn any fear of it, but 
from a kind of feeling that it is one of the things a 
Christian has left behind. ISo — that does no 4 ; ex- 
press it, for it is still to come But I mean, that we 
have actually got the victory over it in Jesus. And 
I think, as one realizes union with Him, one feels to 
have done with it in Him, and that the circum- 



344 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

stances attending death need not be anticipated 
one whit more than those of any other trial which 
may or may not be ' on the morrow.' And there 
seems to me such extraordinary liberty and hap- 
piness in this. I would anticipate nothing, but re- 
joice in the present privileges of my inheritance, 
so far as I am enabled to do so, from moment to 
moment." 

Meanwhile, she left not an instant unused in fin- 
ishing her work of service. " I have thought of you 
very often," she writes, for example, to one whom 
she felt she had not tenderly enough warned, " since 
the few words I had with you the last day I saw you. 
If you remember, you were just telling me how 
afraid you were to die, when I was called away. 
Have you ever closely asked yourself what makes you 
afraid ? I can remember the time when I was so 
much afraid of dying that I often dared not go io 
sleep at night lest I should not live till the morning. 
But during the last five or six years, and often when 
I have been apparently on the very brink of the 
grave, I felt no fear at all. Quite the contrary ; I 
longed to die ! Now you can surely guess what made 
this change in me. Once outside, now in Christ ! 
There is no real happiness until w T e have gone and 
told God all we feel and all we are, and asked Him 
to cover our nakedness and to wash us in the blood 
of Jesus. I long for you to be truly happy. Pray 
to be hid in Jesus. You have beautiful time for 
praying, when you sit alone with God in that nice 
little room. Oh ! what a happy room it might be to 






"sink INTO CHRIST." 345 

you, if Jesus were with you there ! I pray that He 
may be. Join me in praying yourself also ; then, if 
two 'agree,' see Matt, xviii. 19." 

And to another she writes, in a different strain : 
"You cannot think how much I piized your visit. 
We thought and spoke together of Him whose name 
we love and fear ; and I have not a doubt He looked 
on, and loved to be so remembered in this God- 
forgetting world. You know I always like to think 
of His pleasures, and rather to draw mine from them 
than to make mine the chief thing." " Is not the 
Potter and the clay," she adds, reverting to a 
figure formerly named, " a comforting thought, in 
all ways ? for not only does it put us in our right 
place as helpless clay in the Potter's hand, but it 
gives one such confidence in all He does with us ; 
because, of course, He will fashion us so as to get 
Himself most glory by us. And with such an 
object in view, one feels so sure that His designs 
for each vessel must be so full of exquisite beauty, 
displaying such exquisite skill. And there is some- 
thing so very sweet in the feeling that we can be 
made use of to exhibit the beauty of His workman- 
ship. May you often be enabled to pray for your 
poor, weak, worthless friend, and yet a sister in 
God's family, where all is royalty, splendour, and 
might !" 

Her bodily weakness became at times so oppres- 
sive to her that she could scarcely even bear to be 
prayed with. " I can sink into Christ," she said on 
one of those occasions, " though I cannot rise to Him." 



«^4G MEMOIR OF A . L . IIWTOI. 

And another day, when she had not strength to 
pray alone, she whispered, " Yet it comes to me !" 

And again, one night, as she was suffering great 
pain in her chest, and was almost overwhelmed by 
nausea an:! a u distracting headache, ,, she mildly whis- 
pered — " But you know Jesus prays." 

"The way," says one of her sisters, " in which she 
used at this time to name His name, conveyed to me 
far more than I had ever heard her say about Him 
before ; she seemed always conscious that He was 
close to her — almost abstracted from every one be- 
sides — in some unknown way (to me) filled with 
Him, filled by Him, and that so continuously that 
literally she ' lacked nothing.' The impression on 
my own mind is most vivid, though I know I cannot 
in the least convey it to others ; — it was not that she 
spoke about it, for literally she had not breath to 
speak with, it being only occasionally that she talked 
whole sentences at once — but she really seemed en- 
tirely absorbed with Him — Jesus was her ' all in all.' " 

A new radiance, quiet and still like the setting 
sun, appeared to rest now upon passages of the Word 
which before had been wrapt, even to her eye, in a 
kind of mist. u Bright," they seemed, 

"As the glimpses of eternity, 
To saints accorded in their dying hour." 

* Oh ! how very, very little," she said, one day (Jan. 
1 9), " friends are to us in the matter of dying ! It is 
so exclusively betwixt God and the soul. I am so 
enveloped just now in that bright ' cloud ' " (alluding 



CHRISTIAN AND HOPEFUL. 347 

to Heb. xii. 1) — " so realizing the being ' encompassed' 
by it — so enjoying the thought that Jesus is the Sun 
which sheds on it all its brightness !" 

And, on another occasion : " I have been thinking 
of the Melchizedec priesthood, and have found it such 
a rich ' feast of fat tilings !' That word — ' which 
passeth not from one to another' (niarg. Heb. vii. 24) 
— is so dear to me ; it shows that our tale, being once 
told to Jesus, has never to be told again to a stranger V 
And then, after a pause, she added: "It is always 
the same heart of love which listens and intercedes. 
And, of course, the oftener we go to Him, the better 
we can appreciate the value of the assurance that His 
priesthood passes not into other hands." 

The Pilgrim, in his struggle through the " black 
river," u cried out to his friend Hopeful, "'I sink in 
deep waters.' " Dear Adelaide, during these months, 
was not without tasting this trial. " I cannot help 
telling you," she writes, in a brief note, " how 
despondency has been trying me ; for I know you 
will ask that the temptation may be taken away. I 
think it is plain that Satan has been taking advan- 
tage of my weakness ; and I feel as if I could not 
help turning to you, as the only friend to whom I 
can unburden this particular trial, to ask your kind 
help in prayer. I always feel that to be spoken for 
to God is more than all besides." 

When the Pilgrim was trembling, Hopeful ex- 
claimed, " Be of good cheer, my brother ; I feel the 
bottom, and it is good." Dear Adelaide was never 
without " feeling the bottom." In a pencil-note to 



848 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

the Hon. Mrs. C , Jan. 19, she says: "I really 

am too ill just now to write or read or think ; but I 
must make the effort to undeceive you about my 
state of mind — it never was so low, so unable to 
enter at all i into the sanctuary above.' No ; I have 
had the full persuasion that God was unchangeable 
in all His feelings to me, though all mine to Him 
seem at an end. You little know how sorely un- 
belief tries me ; but I suppose it is through these 
very depths of anguish that we learn most — and, 
therefore, while we cry, ' O wretched man that I 
am !' we may still be saying, ' I thank God through 
Jesus Christ.' " 

And again : " I quite believe that this spiritual 
tiial arises from bodily health, I feel you do right 
to direct me to the temptations of Jesus ; for, after 
all, satisfying comfort can be found nowhere else. 
If there be one subject more than any other which 
I long to be helped to prize more, it is the love of 
Jesus. And perhaps the study of that love, as you 
have so kindly put it before me, may be God's way 
of setting me free." 

And to another, Jan. 26 : "Don't sorrow, dearest 
friend. When faith is lively, there is nothing I so 
long for as to be with Jesus — I do so want face to 
face communion ; but pray for me just now as much 
as you can, for I sesm to be ascending the mountain 
through mists which hid^ everything. Don't you 
know what I mean V 

Light once more aioae in the darkness ; and, as 
often before, it came through the Wojrd, u I am hap- 



LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. 349 

pier now," she writes, Feb. 2. "I must first tell you, 
however, that, for some time past, it has been rather 
trying to me not to find anything in the Bible which 
quite suited -my case. Isa. 1. 10 did not ; for I could 
not say I had ' no light.' Mic. vii. 9 did not ; for, in 
this particular instance, I had no particular sin with 
which to charge myself. And so on with other similar 
texts ; whilst I never could, for one moment, believe 
that God was hiding His face. I felt I was myself 
crushed, and I could not look up. You will believe 
therefore, how exactly I found myself described ic 
Exod. vi. 9 — ' Moses spake so unto the children of 
Israel ; but they hearkened not unto Moses for an- 
guish (marg., shortness, or straitness) of spirit and 
for cruel bondage.' And then I felt that redemp- 
tion was only i promised' to them ; but for us it is 
1 obtained' — actually, for the soul, and, in Christ, for 
the body. And it seemed as if, for the first time, 
God had in this trial spoken through His Word 
and brought it home. I never am happy till I have 
verified my experience by the Word. " She bright' 
ened," says her sister, " from that moment." 

Another consolation gladdened her. "This has 
sometimes tried and exercised my faith lately," she 
writes, on Feb. 10, " why such extremity of suffer- 
ing must be ; but, after all, it brings us into very, 
very little fellowship with what Jesus endured. 
His sufferings have been quite too much for me at 
times lately — I could not read them. I suppose you 
never felt that ?" And again : " I have been think- 
ing of those words of His to Zebedee's sons, 'Can 
30 




350 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

ye drink of the cup which I drink of?' Oh ! dearest 

, if I have learned but one lesson through this 

season of humiliation, it is that I stand from first to 
last in what Jesus has done for me.' 'Thou wilt 
keep him in peace — peace, whose mind is stayed on 
thee !' " 

About the end of February she speaks of being 
" wonderfully better," and of " certainly gaining 
strength." And she hastened to ; ' occupy" the brief 
season of respite. " Whenever she was able to do 
so," says her sister, u her book on the Hebrews was 
generally her subject ; she reserved all her strength 
for that — writing, or correcting what she had pre- 
viously written, or searching works, especially the 
Book. She even gave up almost all correspondence 
with friends, that her little remaining power to hold 
a pen might be devoted to Him of whom she felt 
that that epistle especially testified." And, on 
March 14, she herself writes to the Hon. Mrs. 

C , thus : " I thought you would like one line 

to know that, in spite of increasing weakness, Heb. 
ix. is done and chapter x. begun. I feel it is an ef- 
fort to do it, but I am anxious to do what I can, 
while I can." 

One of her earliest labours of love had been the 
aiding of the Irish Missions. With that steadfast- 
ness of purpose which characterised all her efforts, 
she had sustained this agency, year by year, with a 
zeal which time only deepened. u Thank you, a 
thousand times " are her closing words reo-ardino- it, 
"for all v our love and thoughts of me. I have 



A BALM. 351 

been, to my own feelings, at the very point of 
death, but just now have rallied again a little, and 
seize on the opportunity for sending my money. 

Dear G has kindly undertaken the care of my 

Scripture-reader (d.y.) for the future. I feel a little, 
sending it for the last time — the flesh is so very 
weak. But, thank God, I am not so spiritually 
crushed and kept down, now that the body is freer 
from pain. I knew it was jmysical depression. 

Exod. vi. 9 seemed exactly to suit me. Dr. 

has plainly told me, that with disease so ' active' as it 
was when he last tried my chest, it was impossible 
to tell how soon it might do its work. I can testify- 
to God's faithfulness throughout, and have only 
been crushed through intense weakness and bodily 
suffering in myself." 

And one or two other messao-es likewise enowed 
her pen. " I cannot refrain," she writes to Miss 

G , March 9, "from trying to send you this 

evening a text which has seemed very full of beauty 
to me lately, Heb. ix. 24, Christ ' appearing' in the 
presence of God for us. The Greek is to ' appear, 
or shew one's-self.' Don't you think there is some- 
thing very touching in the idea, that it is enough 
that Jesus should show Himself to God for us ? 
That is the idea the words give me ; and I have 
found it very sweet — as if the sight of Jesus quite 
satisfied the Father. And then to feel it is on our 
behalf He is there ! But I am getting too tired to 
write any more, and will only add very fondest love. 
Prav for me, that I may not ' faint.' " 



852 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

And to another, who had been bereaved : " The 
expression — be it ever so hasty — of the love and 
sympathy which I feel to you and each of you just 
now as fellow-members in Christ's body, must not 
be withheld, though it be given with all the infir- 
mity of poor frail humanity ! Jesus is your real 
Fountain of comfort ; and friends at best can only be 
channels, and rills, and little streams, to convey to 
you some of His overflowing consolation. God 
Himself bless, and keep, and comfort, and shine 
upon you !" 

And again to another : " I am anxious to scribble 
a few words to you as best I can. When I have 
been able, I have been thinking of the New Covenant 
— its marvellous perfection, and the very wonderful 
state it places us in. If we only believed it, I can 
hardly conceive how w r e could be happier. But it 
strikes me now, in getting nearer views of eternity, 
how little we know of true simple faith. I can't 
express it ; but I do so feel it. However, I must 
stop : my writing will show how weak I am !" 

About the middle of March she was once more 
prostrated. " I am again," she writes, " as weak as 
I can be. I think I decidedly decline ; and my 
hopes lessen of any reviving — which I had fancied I 
should have liked, if I might have had it, just for a 
little while." And, a few days later, to the Hon. 

Mrs. C : " The frequent shortness of breath, 

which has been more trying me lately, is what chiefly 
makes me feel the uncertainty I do about life." 
And, again, to another : " My throat has lately be- 




CONVERSATION. 353 

come extremely painful at times ; and I have, in con- 
sequence, entirely lost my voice." 

" I wish," said a friend who was visiting her one 
day, " I could take that pain and suffer it for 
you." 

" But you know," replied dear Adelaide, with a 
smile of patient meekness which her friend says she 
never will forget, u you know that if I am to reign 
with Jesus, I must be conformed to His image in His 
sufferings also and in His death." 

She used to lie upon the sofa, with her eyes fixed 
upward and her lips moving. Only occasionally she 
w T ould whisper some brief word. "All is bright 
yonder !" she said one evening. The " glory to be 
revealed," seemed chiefly to absorb her thoughts, 
" Perhaps," was her remark, on another occasion, " as 
believers in a coming Redeemer, we ought hardly to 
let death dwell on our minds." 

" I do not find the same comfort," she said one 
morning, " from isolated texts as I once did." " The 
last large portion of Scripture which I read to her," 
writes one of her sisters, "' was the Book of Deute- 
ronomy, in which she particularly delighted. As I 
was reading it this last time, she seemed to i revel' 
(as she used to express it) in the view of God's char- 
acter which she always gained from it. If I paused 
at any particular verse, she would inquire why that 
single sentence arrested me, and would add — ( You 
should look at the grand whole.' " 

At intervals she revived a little, and was able to 
enter into a whispering conversation. " His dealings 
30* 






354 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

with me are so mysterious," she said on one of tliose 
occasions, " so unlike anything I ever anticipated ! 
He keeps me in such perfect peace ! I can only 
think of the words, ' He shall carry the lambs in His 
bosom' — lift them up, and take them quite out of 
reach of the wolf, so that they shall not even hear 
his roaring." 

And, another time, she said ; " It is wonderful how 
little I have been tempted by Satan. But the Lord 
1 stayeth His rough wind in the day of His east wind :' 
when there is great bodily suffering, He does not let 
Satan harass me." 

In one of her last brief notes, she wrote to the 

Hon. Mrs. C thus : i; I hope you have got 

your Hebrew Bible, or, at all events, your German, 
and will enrich me with some of the exquisite 
things you get out of it. I should like to send you 
those words to think of — ' Making melody in your 
heart to the Lord.' How sweet the occupation of 
singing to Him ! (Ps. cv. 2) — and it just occurs to 

me how nice an opportunity you and have got 

for it, whilst shut out from more active service. It 
is the greatest comfort to me often to feel sure it is 

fragrant to Jesus. Will you give Eph. i. 12 to 

from me ? It is such a precious verse for a sick- 
room ; for, when we can absolutely neither write, 
nor speak, nor work at anything, we are i to the 
praise of His glory' still, whilst lying ; trusting in 
Christ.' " 

And in another note she bids a touching farewell 
to a humble saint, thus : — 



A FAREWELL. 355 



u "My Dearest M- 



u I must say good-bye in writing, as it is so im- 
possible for us now to meet in the flesh, "What a 
wonderful thing our union is in the True Vine ! 
Oh. that we may get daily closer together in Jesus ! 
Does He not seem to you every day to be more and 
more your 'All and in all V — the Beloved on whom 
we lean every step of our way in coming up from the 
wilderness, 

"/I travel through a desert drear and wild, 

Yet is my heart with such sweet thoughts beguiled 
Of Him ou whom I lean — my strength, my stay, 
I can forget the sorrows of the way.' 

It really does put sad and gloomy thoughts quite 
away, to realize the presence of Him whom our soul 
loveth. 

'•I was thinking to-clay of Cant. viii. 14, and 
especially of 'the mountains of spices.' It appears 
to me as if that verse implied, that it is when we 
are highest and farthest up the mountains, earthly 
things look so small (as they gradually recede from 
our sight) that at length the only object we seem to 
care about is seeino- Jesus again ! Thev are moun- 
tains of spices, full of sweetness ; but still we are 
not satisfied until we awake after His likeness, and 
see Him face to face ! Will you constantly pray 
that I may be ever ready to meet my precious 
Saviour when the appointed time comes, and l be 
found of Him in peace, without spot and blame- 
less V The verse I will specially ask you to plead 



356 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

for me is 1 Thess. v. 23, that I may be l preserved 
blameless' — kept from falling, or from growing cold 
or languid. 

" Oh ! may the Spirit of our God take some live 
coals from off the altar, and set our hearts on fire 
with love to Jesus ! 

" Ever, my dearest M , your own affectionate 

sister in Him, 

k 'A. L. Newton." 

About four, one morning, three weeks or so before 
her death, she was talking with one of her sisters about 
the ways of the Lord towards her. " Do you think 
you must go '?" she said, as her sister was leaving, 
afraid of her exhausting herself. " I have been so 
little able to talk lately, that it is quite a pleasure. 
But the pain has been so intense. Oh ! there is 
something so inconceivably precious in the firm con- 
viction, that, as to one's safety, it is all done ! "When 
you draw near, or feel drawing near, to the end, it is 
nothing but the great foundation-realities of the Gos- 
pel which will do — one seems to care about nothing 
else ; it is just Christ's finished work, nothing else, 
which will satisfy you then." 

" I got up again to go," says her sister, " for she 
coughed so sadly ; and though it was hard to tear 
one's-self aw T ay, I thought it cruel to stay. But she 
almost kept me, saying, i There is something so un- 
speakably precious in speaking of Him we love, re- 
membering Him in the night-watches.' " 

It is recorded of Legh Richmond, that, the last 



"rock-like peace." 35? 

fortnight of his life, he " was very silent, and ap- 
peared constantly in prayer and meditation, waiting 
his dismissal and the end of his earthly pilgrimage. 
Nothing seemed to disturb him, and he seemed to 
realize that blessed word, ' Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee.' " Very 
similar was the closing fortnight of dear Adelaide's 
course. " It looked like heaven," says one of her 
sisters. " She seemed already there in spirit though 
treading our vale of tears. There was nothing of tri- 
umph : but such solid, rock-like peace I scarcely hope 
ever to see again. As I used to close her room-door 
and sit silently beside her, she little able to speak, or 
even to listen to speaking or reading, yet c looking 
heaven' — I could not but feel that we were three, 
and Jesus in our midst. - Him ! Him !' she once 
said, alluding to Rev. i. 5, 6, which I had begun to 
quote, 'I cannot get any further — that is enough — 
Him !' " 

One of those mornings, very early, she lay, with a 
happy smile on her worn countenance, meditating 
on the chapter (Tit. iii.) which had been read to her 
the previous evening. " ' According to His mercy 
He saved us,' " she slowly repeated twice, alluding 
to v. 5 ; " * According to His mercy He saved us.' 
If I can say no more, angels and devils too shall hear 
me say, 'Mercy ! mercy ! According to His mercy 
He saved us !'" 

A few days before he died, Payson — himself also 
enduring extreme bodily suffering — said : " My God 
is in this room. I see Him ! Oh ! how lovely is the 



358 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

sight ! bow glorious does He appear ! worthy of ten 
thousand hearts, if I had so many to give !" Dear 
Adelaide " seemed now quite willing," says her sister, 
" to relinquish seeing ministers and Christian friends, 
or getting letters, though formerly all the three had 
been helps she felt solitary without. The Lord's Per- 
son seemed wholly to absorb her, as if she saw Him, 
heard Him, lived with Him. Certainly He was not 
only far dearer, but appeared to be nearer, to her 
than were any of us." 

On a Saturday night (April 15), about ten days 
previous to her departure, one of her sisters, who was 
sitting up in the adjoining room (for Adelaide always 
preferred being alone), went in to mend her fire. 

" What thought have you had," whispered Ade- 
'aide, observing her, " which makes you look so 
happy?" 

" That word in the 65th Psalm, l Praise waiteth 
for thee, Lord, in Sion.' " 

" Oh ! I remember your thoughts about Sunday 
always. I hope you will have a very happy one to- 
morrow." 

The next evening, on her sister's return from 
church, the thought seemed fresh in ber mind. " I 
have been meditating so much all day," she said, 
" on that precious Psalm !" 

" I^n't you think," asked the other, "that its full 
meaning, especially verses 1 and 4, never can be 
realized here ? Glimpses we may have ; but ' praisa 
waits,' does it not ?" 

" Yes," said Adelaide, turning her bright eye up- 



tip." 359 

arards ; " we must go higher up to know what it is to 
be * satisfied' with the goodness of His house." 

" How glorious it will be to have Jesus l declaring' 
His Fathers ' name' to us ! Man spoils it so." 

" Yes," was her reply ; " and the Hebrew is very 
striking ; it is, ' He reckons up — enters into the mi- 
nutest details ;' and He will l praise in the midst of 
the congregation.' It will not be long, G , be- 
fore He comes again, and with our bodies, knowing 
each other, we shall stand there." 

The same evening, her mother " enjoyed a most 
delightful conversation with her." Few words she 
was able to utter ; and these few only in a whisper. 
" Dear mamma," she said at its close, " here is my 
parting gift to you — ' For one look to self, take ten 
of Jesus.' " 

A day or two afterwards, one of her sisters was 
reading to her the 90th Psalm. " Alluding," says 
her sister, " to v. 8, which we had talked over seven 
years before, she asked if I had made up my mind 
about it. Then, passing to v. 1 7, and slowly repeat- 
ing the words — -' And let the beauty of the Lord 
our God be upon us,' she said, ' What a sublime 
prayer ! how unlike it ours are !' " 

Another morning, the sister who used always to 
take up her breakfast, found her deeply affected. 
" It is only the parting from all you dear creatures," 
she said, wiping the tear from her eye. " But never 
mind," she added, a few moments afterwards, with a 
brightening smile, " this corruption must put on in* 
conniption." 



360 MEMOIR OF A. L. NEWTON. 

The following Friday (April 21), the Rev. Mr. 
Dallas (of Wonston) came from Hull to see her. 
Naming some features of death, he inquired if the 
near prospect of it troubled her. " Oh !" she re- 
plied, turning her eye towards him and sweetly smil- 
ing, "there are many things about it which I shrink 
from ; but, you know, I need not look at them." 
" He told me," says her sister, " that nothing would 
ever efface from his memory the impression of that 
brief visit — scarcely ever had he witnessed such ma- 
turity of faith and of love." And her mother adds : 
" He was much affected, and said how much he re- 
joiced that he had come." 

The last Sabbath of her life was one of great 
agony. In the morning, she had been jotting down 
in pencil some thoughts on Heb. xi. 1, 2 — intending 
it for her book then passing through the press ; and, 
on her sister's return from morning-service, she had 
put a " small piece of paper" into her hand, saying 
eagerly, " I want you to tell me what you think of 
it." In the afternoon, she was seized with a violent 
cramp. " She was in great suffering," says her 
sister ; " but not a word or look of impatience then 
or at any other time escaped her." And another 
sister says : " Three times that afternoon and even- 
ing, she told me of her thankfulness in being kept 
from any spiritual clouds." 

" Affliction is ours," says Herbert, speaking of the 
family-discipline — 

"We are the trees whom shaking fastens more, 
"While blust'ring winds destroy the wanton bowers, 



TUB SILENT TEAR. 361 

And ruffle all their curious knots and store. 

My God, so temper joy and woe. 

That thy bright beams may tame thy bow." . 

Lear Adelaide's " woe," arising from extreme bodily 
suffering, was indeed "tempered" with a heavenly 
"joy." "As I watched her from day to day," says 
her sister, " I felt quite overcome, to see how she 
literally rejoiced in the tribulation of body which 
Jesus had appointed for her. A silent tear was the 
only expression of pain which ever came from her, 
I was really astonished at the long-continued grace 
she manifested in this particular, and could only 
glorify God in her, being often reminded of the 
remarks she used to make about Phil. i. 29, how it 
is ' given' to the believer ' in the behalf of Christ' 
to suffer for His sake. ' A gift' she would say, 
' a gift !' and she did indeed accept it with a loving, 
acquiescing heart — a will which delighted in His 
will — so that tht common term of 'resignation' had 
really in her case no meaning." 

Her patience appeared also in another trial. "All 
through her illness," her sister says, " she had been 
so independent of help that she would let nothing of 
any kind be done for her, however costly the struggle 
which enabled her to do it for herself. But when at 
last she could struggle no more and she was obliged 
to be helped as you would help an infant, she never 
uttered anything like complaint, but most humbly, 
and gratefully, and lovingly accepted our services." 
"Ah !" she would say, with a kindly smile, to the 
faithful old family-nurse, as she was washing her or 
31 



362 MEMOIR OF A . L . NEWTON. 

doing any other act of service, " a cup of cold water 
shall in no wise lose its reward." 

On the Monday afternoon, she asked her sister to 
read the second chapter of Malachi. "I rather won- 
dered/' says the latter ; " but, not liking to make her 
speak, I began to read, when she half looked up and 
said, i I meant the third.' And that was the last 
portion," her sister adds, " of her precious com- 
panion which I ever enjoyed with her. For three 
weeks she had scarcely ever been able to read it for 
herself; but often I was struck by the eager way in 
which her bright eye followed it, if, when trying to 
place her food or medicine conveniently near to her, 
I ever moved it even a very little further off than 
where she had put it." 

The next forenoon, after a few minutes' sleep, she 
said, U I will get up; I think I can write some more 
of 'Hebrews;' my mind is so full ; give m-> mv Bi- 
ble." And for a little she sat with her pencil in her 
hand, but unable from exhaustion to put it to paper. 

A faintness, however, came on ; and, after another 
short sleep, she awoke with an excruciating pain in 
her head. At four p.m. this gave way to a distress- 
ing convulsion, which " gave us all (says her sister), 
as we gathered round her, the feeling that death had 
seized her." For about twenty minutes her distress 
w r as agonizing ; yet u even with the grasp of that 
iron hand upon her (her sister adds), her expression 
of countenance never altered in the least, nor did 
her consciousness leave l:er for a moment." 

The physician crone in, and administered some 



DISMISSAL. 363 

medicine ; and the violence of the spasms subsided. 
As he retired, she said to one of her sisters, a I 

have just been asking Dr. how long he thinks 

I may continue in this state; and he told me it 
could not be long." "For your sake," said the 
other, " I cannot wish it should be." " I," Ade- 
laide replied, " have no wish about it." 

A little before eight she was lifted into bed, thank- 
ing those around her for their tender Qare. About 
nine, it seemed as if the painful struggle were 
again coming on ; and she begged that the physician 
might be called, saying, " Surely the bitterness of 
death is past !" But she was spared any furthei 
conflict. Till four in the morning she was still and 
calm — not uttering a word, though apparently quite 
conscious. At length her happy spirit was evidently 
departing. " As she leaned against the pillows which 
supported her," says her sister, " I fancied she would 
have spoken to us, had she been spoken to ; but no 
one broke the solemn silence." A smile of heavenly 
peace rested on her pale face — when, about five, 
her breathing ceased so insensibly, that not till the 
physician who supported her bad said, " She is here 
no longer," did. those around, her know that she had 
gone to be with the Lord. 

It was on April 26, 1854, and as she had just 
completed her thirtieth vear. 

" I bless thee," said Poly carp, as he stood at the 
stake, " that thou hast counted me worthy of this 
day and of this hour, to receive my portion in the 



304 MEMOIR OF A . L . If £ W T O xN T . 

number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ." D^ar 
Adelaide Newton had now finished her " living 
martyrdom," and finished right worthily. 

Lord Bacon has remarked that, " when a man has 
obtained worthy ends and expectations, the sweetest 
canticle is, ' jSTunc diinittis.' " Beloved Adelaide is 
gone upward, solaced by this canticle. " Yet a little 
while," and she shall receive her crown, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to her "at 
that day." 

Our sister's fight is over. 

Her arduous race is run ; 
'Twas by Tar grace and power 

The prize of life she won. 

Soou wilt Tuou come iu glory, 

"With all thy Church to shine, 
Our bodies raised in honour 

And beauty. Lord, like thine 

Then, then, we'll shout still louder 
The song which now we sing — 

grave, where is thy victory ? 
death, where is thy sting ? 



THE END. 



3477 



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